Returning Home
by Gloria Underhill
Summary: Sequel to A Taste of Power. Kagome and the gang must deal with the lingering effects of Sorrell’s deceit while searching for the jewel, Naraku, and Kohaku.
1. Pause

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

A/N: This is the sequel to A Taste of Power. I think I explained things pretty well here, but the intricacies might be confusing if you haven't read the first one. It's funny, this started out as a three chapter exploration about Kagome's withdraws from the Jewels power until Sorrel jumped full grown from my head and said "I can use that!" Ah well, such is life.

Chapter 1: Pause 

          Kagome leaned against the trunk of a tree just outside of her school. Classes were out for the day, but she didn't feel like going home yet. It had been three days, and even though InuYasha had agreed on a week, he might get impatient and pop up at any moment, and Kagome wanted the time to think. She was just recovered enough to start to put things together in a lucid manor and she wanted that done before she had to face everyone.

          She sighed and watched the sun filter through the leaves. She had endangered the quests, her friends, and herself over… what? Exhaustion at first, but then, after she began to recover, with InuYasha's help, why had she continued? Had she just wanted to kiss InuYasha that much? She kissed InuYasha!

          "I can't believe I kissed him!" Kagome hid her face in her hands in embarrassment.

"You kissed him?" three excited voices chorused.

          'Oh God no.' Kagome thought desperately, 'Not them, they did not just hear that!'

But of course they had, and they wouldn't be deterred by the way Kagome attempted to curl up and disappear into the ground.

          "Who did you kiss?" Eri asked quietly.

          "Um…" Kagome uncurled and looked into her friend's shocked and curious faces.

          "Was it Hojo?" Ayumi asked excitedly.

          "It wasn't that other guy was it?" Yuka asked with disapproval.

          "…Other guy?" Kagome said uncertainly.

          The girls squealed.

          "Did he finally get over his ex?"

          "Did you kiss him or did he kiss you?"

          "What about poor Hojo?"

Kagome stood to confront her friends, "It's not like that! It's- I don't know what it is. I wasn't thinking clearly- it was an accident! I have to go home now and… I just... I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

          Kagome left her stunned friends under the tree and ran all the way home.

*

          InuYasha lay on the floor of Keade's hut. He was slowly regaining the energy he lost to Kagome and during the final battle with Sorrell. The numbness was leaving him as his energy returned, and his resentment of the situation was growing.

          He had thought about Kagome, about what Sorrell said to him, about what Kagome told them she had said to her.

          Kagome had kissed him. She had knowingly sucked energy from his lips. Energy he refused to give her, energy she had given him in the first place. He shouldn't have kept it. He shouldn't have taken it.

          InuYasha scowled, she shouldn't have given it. He hadn't asked for anything from her!

          But… she gave it; she gave him energy to heal him and didn't expect anything in return. She gave until it almost killed her, and he didn't help her, he couldn't see what was going on.

          Until Sorrell. Sorrell, who told Kagome how to help herself, who betrayed Kagome's trust and used her, and him, to heal Kohaku, weaken the group and tried to turn Kagome into a succubus like herself. To whom he owed the memory of Kagome's kisses.

          "INUYASHA!" Shippo called from the doorway "Kagura's coming this way!"

          InuYasha jumped up, grabbed his sword and followed Shippo.

          Kagura was tucking her feather back into her hair when the group arrived.

          "What do you want bitch?" InuYasha held the transformed fang defensively and tried to hide his panting from the enemy.

          "Now, now InuYasha, That's no way to start a civilized conversation." Kagura tapped the end of her closed fan lightly to her cheek, "I'm not here to fight. I came to ask a question, what happened to Naraku?"

          "… What do you mean?" InuYasha asked.

          Kagura frowned, "Did you not defeat him? Don't tell me it was that weak little succubus Sorrell!" 

The silence of the battered group before her was answer enough, "Shit." She muttered, "That means he's still alive."

          "What are you talking about?" InuYasha growled.

          "No one has killed Naraku." She answered impatiently, "He disappeared after he went to deal with Sorrell. I believe that he was wounded badly and he's hiding out somewhere, regaining his strength. Keep your eyes open, maybe you'll get lucky."

          Then, with her usual finesse, she drew her feather and sped away on her wind.

          "How… strange." Miroku said when she disappeared.

          "Did she come here just to tell us Naraku was missing, possibly vulnerable, and that we should try to kill him?" Sango asked, she relaxed slightly from her battle stance and rested the tip of her boomerang on the ground.

          "That's what it looks like." Miroku shrugged.

          "Whatever, lets just get back to the village." InuYasha put away his sword and started back to Keade's.

          Myouga jumped onto InuYasha's nose, "Lord InuYasha! You should be regaining your strength, not looking for fights!" he admonished.

          "Where have _you_ been?" InuYasha growled.

          "I have been searching for clues to Kagome's situation." Myouga announced quickly, to avoid being squashed.

          "And what did you find?" Miroku asked.

          "… Nothing, I did discover that Sorrell was an ancient succubus and that she found many ways to use her natural powers of manipulating the energy she stole from humans. Apparently this made her an unusually powerful for a youkai of her level. She was not here long before Naraku approached her."

          "Do you think Keade was correct about Kagome returning to normal in time?" Sango asked.

          "I do not know." Myouga replied slowly.

          "Do you know anything of use to us?" InuYasha asked impatiently.

          "…No."

          "Then got out there and find out about Naraku or the jewel or Kohaku or how to fix Kagome and don't come back until you know something we can use!" InuYasha threw Myouga into the forest and tried to stomp back to Keade's.

*

          'It wasn't just because I wanted to kiss him.' Kagome thought, as she walked home from school on the day she was to return to the feudal era. 'My mind was all fuzzy.'

          She looked up the steps to her families' shrine and sighed. There where just so many! That had never bothered her before; she would just skip right up and be all smiles at the top.

Kagome took one agonizing step at a time, as she had every day this week. She made her way through the house to her room, grabbed the bag, already packed with clothes and toiletries, and walked down to the kitchen to pack the ramen, tea and other sundries.

          After that she heaved her pack over her shoulders and walked to the well. She spent a good ten minutes staring into the shadows at the bottom of that well. She still didn't feel prepared to face InuYasha. But what choice did she have.

          She could wait for him to come and get her. Then again, he hadn't ever stayed away this long, maybe he wouldn't come back for her. Maybe he didn't want to see her anymore.

          Maybe doesn't matter, she told herself resolutely. She had told them all that she would return, and she couldn't just disappear. If InuYasha didn't want her around any more then she would say her good byes and leave. Now she just had to jump down the well and face them.

          Kagome sat on the lip of the well, put one leg over, then the other, and dropped into the darkness.

*

          Shippo was sitting on the edge of the well, waiting for Kagome to return. Miroku had told him that she would return today. It had been a long, boring, weird week without her, and her candy.

          The well filled with a familiar blue light and Shippo hopped down squealing in glee, "KAGOME!"

          Kagome put her arms out automatically to catch him, "Shippo!" she gasped when he was in her arms, "Don't do that! You could get hurt."

          Shippo shook his head, "I'm a youkai Kagome." he laughed, "I'm tough."

          Kagome looked up to the square of sky at the top of the well, "Where's InuYasha?"

          Shippo shrugged, "I haven't seen him all day. But, I've been _here_. He could be at the God tree…. He's usually here when you say you'll come back."

          "Maybe he forgot." Kagome sighed. Now she had to climb out of the well carrying this heavy pack all by herself, "Come on Shippo. Let's get to the village."

          Eventually Kagome and Shippo did make it out of the well and back to the village. Miroku and Sango were at Keade's hut discussing Kagura's visit. It gave Sango hope that Kohaku was not back in Naraku's hands. But they still had to find him.

          Shippo hopped into the hut and announced, "Kagome's back!"

          Kagome smiled wearily at her friends, "I'm back, and ready to go find shards and stuff."

          Miroku's welcome smile faded, "Are you sure Kagome, are you sure you have recovered?"

          "Sure." Kagome sat down, "recovered as I'll ever be."

Sango traded worried looks with Miroku, "You're eyes look better." She said helpfully.

"Oh!" Kagome started to dig around in her bag, "I forgot to take them out." she pulled out a small plastic bottle and proceeded to remove her colored contacts.

"Kagome!" the others gasped as she grabbed her eye.

She looked up at them, one eye was the same beep brown they had always known, the other had a sickening green starburst surrounding her pupil, uneven rays jutting harshly into the warm brown iris.

          "Colored contacts," Kagome explained as she removed the other one and put them away, "they change the color of your eye. I couldn't go to school like that. They would think I had novelty contacts and wouldn't let me attend until I removed them. It's ironic really."

          "How do you feel?" Sango asked uncertainly.

          "… Fine, I guess." Kagome did a quick mental inventory, "I have more energy then before. I'm not numb any more. Just a little embarrassed that I was tricked so easily."

          "You weren't in your right mind." Sango sympathized.

          Kagome nodded forlornly, "Has anyone seen InuYasha?"

          Sango and Miroku exchanged looks again, "He wasn't at the well?" Miroku asked.

          Kagome shook her head, "No, Shippo hasn't seen him all day."

          "We haven't seen him either Kagome." Sango said, "I'm sure he'll be here soon."

          Kagome nodded slowly and sat, very still, in silent contemplation.

          InuYasha returned after the others were asleep. He crept into the hut and looked down at Kagome. In her sleep she seemed very much like she had before Sorrell had taken her, pale and vulnerable.

          'She doesn't look sick anymore.' InuYasha retreated to a neutral corner, 'Things will get back to normal, like it was before. It never happened.'

*

A/N: Please let me know if I misspelled anything important, and which one of Kagome's friends is the quite one. I think it's Eri.


	2. The Second Step

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.****

Chapter 2: The Second Step

          The next day Kagome did not speak to InuYasha after he didn't respond to her 'Good morning'. She had wanted to go back home, now that she was certain he was mad at her, but when she tried to say good bye Sango and Shippo convinced her that InuYasha was just grumpy this morning, not mad. Once InuYasha figured out what was going on he yelled at her for being stupid and to get her pack together and let them start looking for the shards.

          So she had stayed.

          And he hadn't said anything since.

          She gathered the items that had been spread out over the hut for sleeping and breakfast, and put them in their proper place in her bag.

          They traveled west and north toward their last confrontation with Sorrel. Then, figuring that she had continued in the same direction that she left the clearing, they turned north again where the roads met.

          It was after several days of silent trudging that they found a small village to stay in.

          Sango stopped them before they entered the village, "I think we should stay together. There is something strange going on here."

          "A youkai?" Kagome asked, she didn't sense anything but was afraid to stretch out her senses.

          "No," Miroku looked around at the villagers milling about, "many of these villagers are armed."

          InuYasha grunted, he had noticed that the armed villagers had fighters' qualities to their air, but they were still just villagers, not warriors.

          "It would be best if we were to stay together and project a peaceful aura." Miroku suggested as they moved forward into the village, "We would not want to aggravate them."

          It did not take them long to find out what had the village so tense. A youkai horde had been striking villages just to the north and seemed to be working it's way south. Some professional warriors had even been sent to the village to help protect it. They spent most of their time lounging around in their rooms.

          While Miroku, InuYasha and Shippo rested in the one small room that was available for the group, Kagome and Sango went with the village women who were going to get a bath before the winter cooled the water too much. It was still a quick and brisk event, some not even bothering to remove their clothes. Sango and Kagome were tougher though and got a good scrubbing.

          "Are you sure that you have recovered enough to do this Kagome?" Sango asked as they dried and dressed themselves, "You seem awful… deliberate with your actions."

          "You mean slow don't you." Kagome sighed, "I'm not tired. I'm not numb like I was. It's just… just… I feel like…" Kagome's eyes unfocused as she tried to put it into words, "I'm on a balance beam, blind folded, one wrong move and I'll fall. Like if I put to much energy out there it won't come back."

          Kagome's eyes refocused and she smiled brightly at the worried look on Sango's face, "But I'm sure I'll get over that in time as well."

          The sun was just setting when their group made it back to the village.

*

          InuYasha and Miroku decided to leave their small room in favor of information for their quests. After all, professional warriors were prone to travel.

          The main room of the big house where the warriors were housed had been turned into something of a bar. InuYasha broke away from Miroku and made his way to one wall to scowl at the relaxing men. Miroku casually joined them.

          One man, with a few gray hairs and a scared face approached InuYasha. After looking him over he said gruffly, "I wouldn't believe it if my own father hadn't told me, you're InuYasha aren't you?"

          InuYasha directed his scowl at the old general, "What do you want, old man?"

          The man chuckled and nodded, "My father told me of a young youkai by that name that hung around his camp for about a year. Said all he did was watch the young men train… and steal food. Was that you?"

          InuYasha turned away, he didn't want to start to remember that part of his life.

          "My father said that it was a shame that you didn't stay longer." the man went ahead anyway. His years training angry young men gave him confidence that this was his fathers InuYasha, despite his youth and the 60 some years that had passed. He was, after all, a youkai. "The men had gotten used to you, and the general at the time was about to take you in. Boys that come in like that are the stuff of generals."

          "I've done alright." InuYasha growled reluctantly.

          The general shrugged casually, the thought had occurred to him that if InuYasha had stayed, he could now be taking orders from an adolescent.

          "Sir," a small group of young men approached hesitantly, "we've returned from next village."

          "Really." The general gave them a flat humorless look, "What do you have to report?"

          "There aren't as many troops up there and the village miko said that she wasn't going to involve herself in battle." The young man said nervously.

          "Won't involve herself?" the general frowned, "Why?"

          "She said that she had her own duties that were more important."

          "What's more important than a horde of youkai?" The general asked angrily.

          "Sh-she didn't say." The young man backed up a step.

          "She seemed a cold individual to me sir." One of the other young men grumbled, "She had only been there a few weeks, showed up out of no where. I'd think she was a youkai but they would do a better job disguising themselves."

          InuYasha stared blankly at the man that had just finished speaking. "Kikyo?" he breathed. InuYasha stood up quickly and headed for the door at a quick pace.

          "InuYasha!" the general called to him, "Where are you going?"

          InuYasha paused then turned back to the general, "Take care of Kagome till I return."

          "Who?"

          "Ka… the girl in the strange clothes." And then he ran out.

*

Shortly after InuYasha's sudden departure, Kagome and Sango walked into the crowded room. Every eye turned on them as Kagome stood on her toes to see over the heads of the men.

"Miroku!" Kagome waved at him then lead Sango over to the table that the monk was sitting at. Once the girls were seated next to Miroku most of the men went back to what they had been doing.

"What brings you here Kagome?" Miroku was certain that it was Kagome's idea to inter the room full of soldiers.

"We went to our room," Kagome was still looking around, "but Shippo wasn't there so we thought that he would be here with you and InuYasha. Where _is_ InuYasha?"

"Shippo is probably in the kitchen getting handouts." Miroku looked at the wall that InuYasha had been leaning against. "I am not sure where InuYasha went."

The general had been watching Kagome since she walked in the room. This had to be the girl InuYasha had told him about. He approached the table, "InuYasha left. He didn't say where, but he'll be back."

"He just left?" Kagome looked him sadly.

He nodded.

"Come on Kagome," Sango put her hand on Kagome's shoulder, "I'm sure InuYasha didn't go far. Lets find Shippo."

*

          InuYasha ran the miles to the next village in a matter of minutes. He ran right up into the middle of the houses before a voice called out.

          "Halt! Youkai!" A young miko with heavy black hair and a cool face was aiming an arrow at him.

          It wasn't Kikyo.

*

Sango turned her head towards the outside entrance of the kitchen. Shippo was being scolded lightly by Kagome for wandering off by himself without telling anyone.

          "Kagome," Sango interrupted her quietly, "Do you feel that?"

          Kagome stopped scolding Shippo and stretched her senses. She had never been that good at sensing youki but if she allowed herself to she could since the power, and something else, "Shikon shards, three of them coming this way."

*

          "You're not Kikyo." InuYasha panted.

          "No, I'm not." The woman didn't lower her bow, "What are you doing here? You're not with the horde so what do you want?"

          "Then why the hell don't you want to fight youkai!" InuYasha yelled at her, 'Damn it! She would have known-' his thoughts were interrupted by the miko in front of him.

          "That is not where my power lies." She lowered her bow and gave him a long puzzled look, "As a miko I'm not very powerful, I… lost it. My power now lies in my instinct. I can heal by it."

          "So?" InuYasha crossed his arms and scowled at her.

          "You're looking for someone." She said.

          "No shit." InuYasha huffed.

          "Not a miko," she waved off his crude retort, "A youkai."

          InuYasha nodded, perhaps she knew something about Naraku.

*

Kagome stood in with her back to the cool forest, facing the burning village. An arrow was resting in its position on her bow as she squinted into the melee. All around the foreground the warriors and towns people fought the horde of youkai. The shards were floating somewhere above or deep in the smoky, fiery, field of battle. She was trying to reserve her energy for the youkai possessing the shards, but they never gave her an opening.

          The general was not far from her, he prevented the lesser youkai from reaching her, but she had used some of her power to protect them both from air attacks while he battled on the ground. And now she was nearly empty.

          A wicked looking bird youkai dove for them and Kagome shot quickly. Her arrow hit the things wing and it dissolved sending the rest of the bird crashing to the ground where the general finished it off.

*

          "A wounded woman." She continued, "I saw such a youkai a little over a week ago, she passed by the village one night."

          "Sorrell?" InuYasha asked, maybe this wasn't such a waste of time.

          "I do not know…" she looked to the north and east, "She went that way, toward the mountains following the river road." She turned back to InuYasha, "The next night a young boy came into the village. He said he was looking for his sister and wouldn't even stay the night, he ate the food I gave him and left, following the same road. I thought that strange."

          "Was he Kohaku?" InuYasha asked intently.

          The miko shook her head, "He didn't tell me his name. But if these are the people you seek, the river road is just to the east of this village."

          "…Do you know how to heal a girl turning into a youkai?" InuYasha ask somewhat reluctantly.

          The miko shook her head but said, "I would have to see her. Wait… you left this girl somewhere?"

          "Yeah, so?" InuYasha scowled down at her.

          "With a horde of marauding youkai running around?" She scowled up at him, "You should return to her, quickly."

*

          Kagome was kneeling on the ground panting, she could barely stay awake. The general lay next to her, mortally wounded.

          Kagome looked up at the ongoing battle; the next youkai that came their way would kill them both easily. And it looked like the next youkai was going to be one with a shard.

          "It's coming," Kagome croaked, "the leader."

          "You have to shoot it." The general panted.

          Kagome shook her head, though he probably couldn't see it, "I don't have the energy, I'd have to feed."

          The general was quite then said, "Take mine."

          "What?" she looked at the dieing man. He wasn't young, and he was mostly dead already, but she could see that there still had a great amount of energy within him.

          "If you kill their leader the rest will lose faith," he argued, "we might have a chance to win."

          Kagome shook her head violently, tears were welling up in her eyes, "I don't want to feed off a human, I don't want to feed off of any one."

          "I'm dieing anyway. You are our only hope." The general growled out, "Take my energy and kill the bastards!"

          Kagome looked up at the fight, they were loosing. She couldn't see her friends. She didn't know were InuYasha was, but she could guess. If she didn't do this, this one time, what was left of the village would be doomed. As well as any others that the horde visited.

          Slowly Kagome crawled up to the general, but kept track of the approaching shard.

          InuYasha came to a stop just inside the trees and grabbed his sword in preparation of joining the fight, when he saw Kagome. The fires revealed her siloete in stark relief as she knelt over the prone body of the general that he had talked with before. He saw her glance up at clouds of black smoke before she leaned down and pressed her lips to those of the dieing warrior.

*

A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing and I'm sorry for taking so long, I won't go into an explanation this time, cause time just sort of got away from me. And remember, Kagome wasn't so much kissing the general as feeding off of him.


	3. The Second Sign

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.****

Chapter 3: The Second Sign

          As Kagome pulled the life energy out of the dieing man's lips she could feel her body transform it into her own pure miko energy. Quickly she stood and pulled her arrow from the quiver on her back. She was just in time to see one of the shard bearing youkai float out of the billowing smoke. He reminded her a little of her run in with the thunder brothers, he was obviously a storm youkai of some sort. His searching eyes found her as she released a charged arrow.

          He didn't even have a chance yell. The arrow pierced him and he dissolved.

          The fight near by quieted, many of the youkai looking at the human that took out one of their leaders so easily, trying to decide what to do. Kagome's legs gave out under her and she collapsed to sit on the ground, this was it, she was finished. Tapped out, totally spent and about to be eaten.

          Those youkai that were not busy with the human army moved to attack the vulnerable miko on the ground, when a blade of light arched over her head, destroying the entire level of flying youkai in the army.

          The entire youkai army turned stilled, then ran in mass, back into the wilds surrounding the village. Even the two remaining shard bearers retreated.

          Kagome looked at the ground directly in front of her in fear. She recognized that attack, she knew that InuYasha was behind her. How long had he been there? What had he seen? When she thought that about what she had done to gain the power and destroy the youkai, she hopped that he had seen it. She wanted him to yell at her and berate her, she should be punished for what she had done. She had promised herself that she would never do that to anyone under any circumstances and she had failed.

          InuYasha watched the youkai horde retreat. Once he was certain that none were going to stick around he turned his eyes on Kagome. He had every intention of yelling at her for what she had done. Then he saw her sitting in the dirt next to the dead general, her legs were folded haphazardly under her and she was staring at the ground with such fear, and shame. InuYasha frowned, he saw her expression change, leading up to something almost like self loathing.

          He had to stop this.

          He walked up to her, "Get up."

          "I'm sorry InuYasha," she said without looking up, "I thought that if I could just get one with a shard they might get scared and run, but they didn't. I took that mans energy and it didn't even do any good."

          InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest, "What the hell are you talking about? You purified the bastard. That was good."

          "But I kissed him." Kagome whispered. She was sure that that would bring down his wrath.

          InuYasha frowned, "Shut up! You did what you had to do. Now stop talking about it!"

          He couldn't escape the thought that if he had been here she wouldn't have needed to get power from another man. She wouldn't have kissed another man.

          "InuYasha! Where's Kagome?" Miroku called through the smoke.

          "Here." InuYasha called back.

          "Kagome!" Shippo bolted through the chaos left in the battles wake to get to her, "Are you alright? I lost you for a while."

          "I'm fine Shippo." Kagome hugged him close, "I'm just… tired. It's been a long day."

          "It's a good thing InuYasha came back when he did." Shippo looked up at InuYasha crossly.

          "Yes, we were very fortunate that your business didn't keep you longer." Miroku didn't even look at InuYasha as he said this, instead he chose to kneel next to Kagome, "Are you injured?"

          "No," Kagome smiled weakly, "I'm just… I think I can stand."

          "It's not what you think!" InuYasha shouted.

          This earned him three dirty looks as Kagome stood on slightly wobbly legs.

          "Where's Sango?" Kagome asked Miroku.

          "She is among the wounded." He answered, "But she is not badly hurt. We left her helping the others to find more of the living. Which is what I should be getting back to, InuYasha would you help me? Shippo can accompany Kagome to the remains of the village.

          "What?" InuYasha tried to protest but Kagome and Shippo were already disappearing in the dissipating smoke and dust.

          "Come, InuYasha we must help the wounded." Miroku called InuYasha's attention back to him.

          InuYasha scowled but complied.

On this side of the field there were very few survivors.

          "It's not what you think." InuYasha started again as they picked their way through the dead.

          "Kagome is in a very fragile state InuYasha." Miroku said as if he hadn't heard the hanyou, "She is still weak from the transformation that Sorrell was putting her through, and I doubt that she is feeling very good about her own part in that situation. We don't really know how the spell is effecting her and the last thing she needs is for you to run off at the first mention of Kikyou-"

          "Shut up!" InuYasha roared, "I said it's not what you think! I," InuYasha thought about it for a moment. Ok, it was what they thought, but he had done it for all of them this time, especially Kagome. "I found out that Sorrell past by the next village after the battle with that Naraku doll. It looks like Kohaku was following her."

          Miroku looked away from the man he was examining, "You're sure about this?"

          "No," InuYasha frowned, "the Miko in that village didn't get their names but it sounds right, and it's the right direction."

          Miroku nodded, "That does not change the reason you left, InuYasha. So don't think that because you found a different Miko will lighten the fact that you ran off again to find Kikyo. Kagome will still be wounded by this."

*        

          Later that night, after the wounded were treated and the surviving had begun to rest, Kagome was poking around the edge of the forest where she, and the general, had made their stand. She was looking for the shard that had dropped from the storm youkai when she shot it.

          "Hey," InuYasha jumped down from the tree he had been watching her from, "What are you doing?"

          Kagome jumped, "InuYasha! Don't scare me like that!"

          InuYasha folded his arms, "You wouldn't be scared if you had stayed in the tent with the others, idiot."

          "I'm looking for the shard that youkai had." Kagome walked carefully around on the blood soaked ground.

          "You can't sense it?"

          Kagome rolled her eyes, "It's right over here, I just don't want to touch anything."

          Once she was sure where the shard was she knocked the slimy scale off of it and picked it up. She watched as it slowly turned from deep purple to light pink in her palm.

*

A/N: Ok, incredibly short chapter. I know, I know, but I wasn't going to get one out this week so I decided to post this because I hate that writer's block that shows up right after a cliff hanger. Also I think this is the worst written chapter I've done yet, in this story. But I rewrote it twice so it will have to stand for a while.

RedHerring - Impatient aren't we? It's only chapter two, Sorrell was a foreign youkai and devised this transformation on her own so know one here has a clue what is happening to her. But I do. The last chapter was called the next step… or some such thing for that reason.

Ghoul King - the general was a smart man, he had been around and seen weird stuff and was used to thinking of his feet and using his instinct, when Kagome told him that she didn't have enough energy and would have to feed he thought for a moment (It's all in the chapter), remember that she removed her contacts in Chapter 1 and has been walking around with green starbursts in her iris's. So it wasn't that far of a leap for him to make. After all, if he was right they might win, if he was wrong no big deal, they die anyway.

By the way, I love your reviews, screaming like a little girl Huh? I wish I knew the evil smiley, or a pouty one. Damn.

Oh by the way, there will be singing in chapter 4! *cackles evilly and wonders off to find coffee.*


	4. The Mystery Race Returns

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in. Nor do I own "Keep your hands to yourself" by Georgia Satellites  
  
Chapter 4: The Mystery Race Returns  
  
"This miko saw Kohaku?" Sango stood and gave InuYasha a hopeful look.  
  
"She didn't know his name." InuYasha repeated, "But it seems right."  
  
They were huddled in one corner of a large shelter, surrounded by the wounded. Kagome was helping the villagers to aid the wounded, and looked very much like she was ignoring the conversation.  
  
"How, how was he?" Sango asked hesitantly.  
  
"Hungry." InuYasha frowned, "She said he ate and left."  
  
"Sango," Miroku stopped her before she could ask another question that InuYasha didn't have an answer for, "tomorrow we will go through that village. You can ask her yourself."  
  
Kagome joined the group and collapsed against a large solid box. She had been told to rest, others would take over with the wounded and she needed to sleep. But there wasn't any room for her to lay down in here.  
  
InuYasha watched her closely as she slumped against the wall. He knew he shouldn't talk to her. She knew that he had left to find Kikyo and no argument as to why would make her any less angry. Besides, he had no idea what to say. She looked so tired and ... lost. Her face was smudged with ash and blood, the green in her eyes reflected the dim light like a ... an animal youkai's. InuYasha sighed; he had really failed her with Sorrell. And he was doing it again. The worst thing was, he was beginning to suspect that Kagome wouldn't just return to normal on her own, as Keade had hoped.  
  
Kagome was mostly tired. Physically and mentally, and of course emotionally. InuYasha had left her for Kikyo, again, in a town that was expecting an attack from a youkai horde. Ok, so the town was full of warriors bent on destroying said horde, and the general had seemed to know InuYasha, but still....  
  
*  
  
The next morning, the group packed up and left the remaining villagers and warriors to finish with the clean up and tend the wounded on their own. After all, the living outnumbered the dead, and Sorrell's trail was getting older.  
  
They traveled on the river road, favoring the ease of the well worn earth to the quick, thin path that lead over a sharp ridge halfway between the villages. InuYasha had taken that path last night, and returned by it. But everyone else was worn out by the battle, and in no shape for climbing.  
  
They were a few short minutes from the next village when they heard harsh mumbling coming from just up the road. The solemn group waited as the mumbling got closer and finally rounded the bend in the road.  
  
A smallish girl in a plain kimono was stomping towards them. She seemed a normal enough girl in an adolescent snit, but something didn't seem quite right about her. Something about the shape of her large blue eyes, the tint of her finer than peasant skin, the way she held her head... the foreign words that poured from her mouth, that almost shouted 'I DON"T BELONG HERE!'  
  
The girl spotted a group of large rocks a few feet in front of our heroes, and headed for them. She sat down on one, dropped the pack that had been on her back by her side, and looked at the group that was staring at her.  
  
"I look human don't I?" she asked in what would have been a strong confident voice, if she hadn't had that pleading look in her unusual eyes, "I mean, I have the right hair," she held up a strand of healthy black hair to prove her point, "the right color," she touched her face, "the clothes!" she motioned at her peasant clothes. "I even worked with my hands! I did every thing right! I didn't even flirt, not even by accident! So why did they call me a kitsune?"  
  
Miroku had already inspected the girl for youki, and found none, the very fact that she was lamenting to them the villagers belief that she was a youkai must mean that she wasn't. She was just an unusually attractive girl that had been misplaced from her home.  
  
He moved quickly to kneel in front of her in a comforting way as the others either rolled their eyes or tried to figure out what the girl meant by having the "right hair and color".  
  
"Now, now, you can't let ignorant people get you down." He reached out and took one of her hands in his, "When a woman is blessed with unusual beauty there is bound to be jealousy. Perhaps if you had the aid and assurance of a monk to show your neighbors that you are not a kitsune in disguise you would find them more understanding."  
  
He was about to continue, to suggest that his weary group stay in her village, in her home, until she was accepted, when she gave him a sweet, sad smile and said, "Thank you. But your compliments would be better received if you weren't so obviously trying to seduce me."  
  
Miroku sputtered for a moment and she removed her had from his.  
  
"My virtue has survived my country and my line of work, I'm not about to loose it to a... to you." She lifted her hands to her head and pulled a few pins out of her hair, "It's about time that continue on my original purpose here anyway, I've wasted enough time trying to learn what humanity is."  
  
She pulled the generous amount of black hair off of her head revealing a pinned up pile of straight white hair and a clear line of white skin that ended abruptly at the wig line. She pulled her hair loose and it fell heavily down past her shoulders and halfway down her back.  
  
Miroku fell back quickly and Sango gasped, "Who- what are you?"  
  
The young woman looked up at Sango, "I don't know. See, I'm having a little bit of an identity crisis. We used to be human, some think we still are, after a fashion. I was trying to figure out what it meant to be a human to find out once and for all. But it's my first time out of the city among real humans, and they all thought I was a youkai." She ended sadly.  
  
"But that isn't why you're here." Miroku recovered and stood.  
  
"No, I'm here looking for a girl, like me, all white like me, but her eyes are pink, she's about twelve, kinda spooky?" she looked at the blank faces around her. "Didn't think so. This would be so much easer if I could have contacted her first."  
  
"Have you seen a boy? With a sickle on a chain?" Sango asked anxiously.  
  
The girl, who was looking through her pack, shook her head. "Sorry."  
  
"The miko saw him, Sango, we'll ask her about him." Kagome said reassuringly.  
  
"She's gone." The stranger said. She had pulled a cloth out of the bag and started to wipe her face with it. All traces of her peasant tan disappeared as the cloth passed over leaving not only pale skin, but skin as white as her hair. Even her lips, gums and tongue were white. "She left early this morning over the ridge, said there was a battle last night and that she had to see to the wounded."  
  
Kagome spoke up when Sango looked over her shoulder, "We can't go back Sango, we have to go forward, following Sorrell."  
  
Sango nodded. They had to keep going forward.  
  
"Come on!" InuYasha walked ahead of them towards the village. "Let's get going."  
  
"I wouldn't go through that village if I were you." The white haired girl called after him.  
  
InuYasha stopped and turned towards her, "What did you say bitch?"  
  
"That village just lost their miko, and threw me out for being a kitsune." She explained, "How do you think you'll be received? ... You guys look like you could use a break, there's this path that leads north of the village, and a cave. I stayed there when I first arrived on this island. Before I found the clothes and learned the language."  
  
"How long have you been here?" Miroku asked.  
  
"About a month, give or take a week." She said, "I may not know much about humans but communication is an important part of my job."  
  
"And what, exactly is your job?" Sango asked suspiciously.  
  
She paused for a moment and looked them over, "I'm an entertainer. By trade. I sing, well, we all sing, almost constantly. I dance well, talk lively, look pretty and get paid."  
  
"Why are you idiots standing around listening to this whore?" InuYasha rejoined the group, "Let's get going!"  
  
"I'm not a whore! Actually I'm a flower weaver, but that doesn't get you anywhere where I come from." She scowled at InuYasha, "And I think your friends could use a day of rest." She looked at Kagome directly and evenly for the first time, "There's a river up there too, it runs warm. I'm guessing that you were in that battle last night, seems to have taken a lot out of you. I can show you the path around the village and you can get a good bath."  
  
Kagome nodded but said, "Why would you do this for us?"  
  
"You guys can hunt right?" she gave them a bright smile that quickly dissolved into a slight grimace, "I may have forgotten to bring food when I left the village."  
  
Kagome nodded and the girl jumped up, "Great. Wait here for one second, I have to get into my own clothes." And she hopped off into the woods with her bag.  
  
"What the hell do you think you're doing bitch?" InuYasha yelled at Kagome, "You want us to waste a day sitting around with some foreign thing when we should be tracking down the enemy!"  
  
Kagome looked at him levelly and said flatly, "I like her."  
  
"What the hell!" InuYasha exclaimed, "We can't afford to spend the day with every fucking person you decide you like!"  
  
"I'm tired InuYasha." Kagome said in that same flat voice, but when she continued she sounded more like her normal, if annoyed, self, "We all are! I was up most of the night tending to the wounded and Sango was one of them! The only reason I agreed to leave was so that we could talk to the miko that saw Kohaku and Sorrell! But since that's not going to happen I would like the chance to rest and get a proper bath!"  
  
Before InuYasha could continue the argument the white girl rejoined them. She spun back to the rock that she had been sitting on, her hair feathering around her head and settling perfectly around her smiling face and shoulders.  
  
She had changed out of the peasant kimono and into a tailored tunic type dress with a skirt almost as short as Kagome's, in a pinkish purple color. The sleeves were slightly tapered so they were wider at the wrists than the shoulder. The under "tunic" was exactly the same, but more pink then purple, and two inches longer at the edges. Were she had been wearing sandals earlier she now wore boots to match her dress. They came up to just below her knees and stood her on four inch platforms. This managed to bring her up to eye level with Kagome.  
  
The outfit was toped off with a matching light purple headband sitting just behind her perfect bangs. Somehow all this pink and purple managed to bring out the absolute absence of these colors in her rich blue eyes.  
  
"Betcha didn't know you could learn that, huh?" she wrinkled her nose attractively.  
  
"Do you have a mirror back there?" Kagome looked into the woods behind the girl.  
  
"Always." She patted her bag, which was hidden behind the rock for her entrance, "Let's go. I'd like to get there in time for a bath before dinner."  
  
The girl shouldered her pack and started back into the forest. Kagome started to follow her.  
  
"Hey, wench!" InuYasha called after her, "we're not going that way!"  
  
Kagome just kept walking. Soon Sango and Miroku followed after her.  
  
"Sorry InuYasha," Shippo said before jumping to Miroku's shoulder, "but she needs us more then you do."  
  
*  
  
Soon the forest gave way to a clear track the white girl walked ahead swaying slightly, as if to a tune in her head.  
  
Sango and Miroku were traveling just behind her. Kagome was behind them, having drifted there while lost in thought. InuYasha was quite away behind her, sulking.  
  
This was important because it gave the strange girl direct access to the couple behind her. Her mind picked up the vibrations coming off of them and her ears picked up the tinkling of Miroku's staff as they walked along.  
  
She giggled and hummed as the tune flowed into her mind and the words drifted slowly into consciousness. Without warning, and not really realizing what she was doing she started to sing those words.  
  
"I got a little change in my pocket goin' jing-a-ling-a-ling  
  
want to call you on the transceiver baby, a-give you a ring  
  
but each time we talk, I get the same old thing  
  
always no hugg-ee no kiss-ee until I get a wed-in' ring  
  
my honey my baby, don't put my love upon no shelf  
  
she said don't hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself.  
  
InuYasha came up next to Kagome, who caught up to Miroku and Sango to better listen to the song.  
  
"What the hell is she doing?" InuYasha asked quietly.  
  
"She appears to be... singing." Miroku said in a low voice.  
  
"Baby baby baby why you wan' treat me this way  
  
you know I'm still your lover boy I still feel the same way  
  
that's when she told me a story, 'bout free milk and a cow  
  
and said no hugg-ee no kiss-ee until I get a wed-in' vow  
  
my honey my baby, don't put my love upon no shelf  
  
she said don't hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself."  
  
"I think she's singing about you Miroku." Shippo said, "It sounds like Sango too."  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about." Miroku said while accidentally knocking Shippo off his shoulder.  
  
"See I wanted her real bad, and I was about to give in,  
  
that's when she started talking about true love  
  
started talking about sin,  
  
I said, honey I'll live with you for the rest of my life, She said no hugg-ee no kiss-ee until you make me your wife-a  
  
my honey my baby, don't put my love upon no shelf  
  
she said don't hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself"  
  
The girl stopped singing and returned to her normal absent swaying.  
  
"That was weird Kagome," Shippo whined from his new perch on her shoulder, "Are you sure we should be following her?"  
  
"She's fine Shippo." Kagome answered absently. The song was more then weird, it was just under 500 years early. "She's just... something else."  
  
*  
  
A/N: Well, she's still with them, so there's more singing to come. That is one song I've never seen applied to them, and I always thought it was appropriate.  
  
If you want to know how I picture the girl, she's a cross between Chi (of chobits) and Daphney (of ScoobyDo). Please forgive my misspellings.  
  
The word telephone was perposfully replaced with transceiver. And Kagome's stedfastness in following the new girl is a part of the transformation. You have to understand that otherwise it's just weird or out of character. How many of you can guess one of the reasons?  
  
Also how many of you can guess the origins of the girl, or who she is looking for? 


	5. Sing A Little Song For Me

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in. Nor do I own "Under The Bridge" I forget the artist but I think it's U2, "With or Without You" by U2, "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" by Styx, "Red Door" by The Rolling Stones or "Weave Me the Sunshine" from Puff the Magic Dragon.  
  
Chapter 5: Sing A Little Song For Me  
  
It wasn't long before they reached the place that the strange white girl had spoken of. It wasn't much of a cave, more like a deep dent in the side of the mountain. But it was deep enough to cover them all comfortably, and had a dry, sandy floor. The narrow path that they were following passed directly in front of it, only a few feet out.  
  
"There it is." The girl turned to walk backwards and made a graceful, twirly gesture at it with her hand and arm, a bright smile on her pristine face.  
  
"Is it ok if I hate you?" Kagome asked in a matter of fact way.  
  
"Sure," She chirped, "but it would be more profitable to learn from me. You guys set up camp and us girls can go take that bath."  
  
"Why the hell would we listen to you?" InuYasha growled.  
  
"I'm going to get a bath, InuYasha." Kagome said dangerously, "I'm tired, I'm bruised and I think I still have blood in my hair. So just keep Miroku and Shippo here."  
  
"Keh!" InuYasha folded his arms and turned away, "But if that girl turns out to be a hungry youkai, you're on your own bitch."  
  
Kagome didn't respond. She just took her bag and followed the girl into the woods.  
  
*  
  
"This is the stream I told you about." The white girl said, "It feeds into the larger river just past the village. So, when you leave you can follow this back to the river road." She paused and walked towards a wall of clumsily strewn rocks and small boulders, "And this is the pool I was telling you about. It's perfect for bathing."  
  
She jumped up to the top of the tallest boulder, boots propped up on the next rock down, and looked across the river.  
  
"Aren't you going to join us?" Sango asked looking up at the strange girl.  
  
"Not really into the whole 'group thing'." She said distractedly, "Shy I guess. Besides, someone should keep watch."  
  
Kagome was already in the water, running her fingers through her wet hair. Sango joined her with a nervous look at the strange girl on the rock.  
  
"Are you sure we should follow this... girl so trustingly Kagome?" Sango whispered to her, we don't even know her name."  
  
Kagome looked at Sango for a minute then turned to the rock, "What's your name?" she asked loudly.  
  
The white girl looked down at them, "Why?"  
  
"We like to know the names of people we meet here, it's friendly." Kagome answered, she was reminded momentarily of conversations she had had with InuYasha near the beginning of their journeys. They happened far less often now.  
  
A short pause, "Would the others like to know?"  
  
"Probably."  
  
"Then I'll wait." She was still looking at them, a slight smile returned to her face, "You are so beautiful, so many colors."  
  
Kagome looked down at herself to make sure that she wasn't showing more then she intended but both her and Sango were sufficiently submerged.  
  
"I'm the same all over." She continued, "You probably don't notice the difference between your cheek bone and your jaw, or neck. Or how many shades of black there actually are in your hair..." she turned back to gaze at the river. "Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly" she sang briefly and became silent for a while.  
  
"Why do you sing?" Sango braved.  
  
The girl blinked, "Was I singing? That's... complicated. I hear songs in my mind. That's why all of us sing. It just shows up, sort of defining our lives. One of my friends once wondered how we would know how to feel if the music stopped. It disturbed my other friends so much they didn't talk to her for a week! I did though. I didn't want her to start listening to the voices again."  
  
"Voices? Like songs?" Kagome said hopefully.  
  
"Nope, voices that tell her to do things. She's feeling much better now though." She smirked at Kagome's shocked face, "There is a theory that everything that has ever been, or will be said or thought or sung or played is floating around just above our heads. Just out of reach. Unless you line up the proper thoughts together in your mind, building what you have into a sort of idea net to catch the next logical step in the line. That's why you look up when you think. Or so the theory goes.  
  
"It is also thought that any original ideas also go there, where it becomes is-was-will be. In this slurry of ideas resides all the songs and tunes that ever was, is or will be conceived. That is where we get them."  
  
"But why can you hear them and not us?" Kagome asked resting her head on her arms that were crossed on the edge of the pool.  
  
"It's a long story. It starts with the three tribes of the canine winds, that disappeared thousands of years ago when a great interplanal war started. They... knew things. Great things. We know one tribe, they followed the dog wind and learned all about the spirit. When they did, they seem too have shed most of their physical bodies and became the warriors of the greater good. We call them glimmer men.  
  
"The second learned to hear the whispering of the wolf wind, they... understood the answers and found the proper questions. They gained all knowledge of the earth. The uses of herbs and the body, things like that. They love all that is life. They became sustainers of the greater good. To us they are known as the Sisters of Light and Life.  
  
"The third followed the fox wind. They loved fun, they sang and danced and played pranks. They learned of the stuff of life; love, hate, motivation, indifference. They learned of flesh and bone and humors. And ... something else. They became the guardians of the gate to the battlefield. My people don't know what happened to them."  
  
She grew silent and looked at her hands. "You know how when someone gets scared, I mean really freaked out, that their hair can turn white... It is said that that is what happened to our ancestors. They learned something, or were exposed to something, that scared them so bad they lost all their color. And we lost that part of our memory." She looked back to the girls finishing their bath below her. "I guess you're wondering why I told all this to you? We hear the songs because we know something, we just don't know what it is. The songs come to us because we are all insane, in different ways, in varying degrees."  
  
"You're insane?" Kagome asked, shocked.  
  
"What color are my eyes." She looked at her with her eyes wide.  
  
"Blue." Sango said.  
  
The girl smiled, "Then I'm alright. I dealt with my ghosts a long time ago. We all know something that is hidden behind that insanity. One man thinks that finding our humanity again, seeing past the barriers of our insanity, will restore us our proper knowledge and purpose."  
  
"Guarding the gate?" Kagome asked softly.  
  
The girl shrugged, "Get dressed, it's time we ate."  
  
*  
  
The girl led them back to the camp in silence. The afternoon was aging fast and they were all hungry. The men were preparing the rabbits that InuYasha and Shippo had caught when the girls reached the camp site.  
  
"It will be a while, if you want it cooked." InuYasha grumped, without looking up at them.  
  
Kagome sighed, "I think we can wait InuYasha."  
  
The girl looked around at the exhausted group and felt the tension. The music in her mind was wild and unharmonious. This had to change, eating on this mood would only cause upset stomachs.  
  
"How about some tea?" she suggested happily as she began rummaging through her pack, "I have some of my stuff in here. It's an herb from my home, known for its ability to relax the body and rejuvenate the spirit."  
  
"Where do you come from? If you don't mind my asking." Miroku asked mildly from where he was sitting, back against the cave mouth.  
  
"Near Paris, I think." She puttered around the fire, expertly avoiding cooking rabbit and Sango (who had taken over the cooking of the rabbit) while preparing the tea, "But the city doesn't really exist as you would think of it. It's nearly impossible to get there unless you know where you are going. Just like the others..."  
  
"Paris?" Kagome said surprised.  
  
"Others?" Miroku prodded.  
  
"Lots of others, mysterious others. More long stories that aren't worth telling right now." She smiled as she poured the tea into porcelain cups that she had in her pack, "Paris is a city. I've never been there myself, but it's far away from here."  
  
"Um, you told us that you would tell us your name once we returned." Sango spoke up bashfully; it was strange to address a person when you didn't know their name.  
  
"Right," she handed Sango a cup of her tea, "you first."  
  
"My name is Sango." Sango said as she accepted the cup.  
  
The girl nodded and moved on to InuYasha, offering him a cup.  
  
"InuYasha." He said shortly and scowled suspiciously at the offered tea.  
  
"InuYasha! Don't be rude!" Kagome scolded from the other side of the circle.  
  
"Keh." InuYasha took the cup, but didn't seem willing to drink it yet.  
  
The girl moved on to Miroku.  
  
"Thank you. I am called Miroku." He accepted the tea graciously.  
  
She nodded and handed Shippo a cup.  
  
"I'm Shippo!  
  
The girl nodded again and moved on to Kagome.  
  
"My name is Kagome Higurashi." She smiled brightly at the other girl and took the offered cup, "Thank you."  
  
The girl took her cup and sat between Kagome and Sango. She sipped the tea and looked up at the group again, "Names are very important to my people and the people that are with us in that place that sort of doesn't exist. They hold power for us and over us. Where I come from names are given as our songs change. Usually they have meanings within the songs that speak to us alone. But the name that they know me by is far too... shallow, I guess. So I'll tell you the name I was born with, before I had any songs." She paused and watched the group sipping her tea, even InuYasha was trying it since she drank some, "Actually it's because I'm a flower weaver. I was named after the magical flower that the tea is made from. It grew in my footsteps when I was truly happy and only lived for an hour, so you had to be fast to get some. Then again, they were my footsteps..." she took another drink and shrugged, "My name is Mary Jane."  
  
Kagome started and gave the tea a wary look.  
  
Mary Jane saw this and laughed, she shook her head and said, "Not the same thing."  
  
"What?" InuYasha asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.  
  
"Nothing," Mary Jane shook her head again, "As far as I know that name is only used for the magical herb that I grow. Well, for now anyway." she frowned thoughtfully.  
  
The group sipped the tea and relaxed to the smell and sound of the cooking rabbits. When the rabbits where prepared, and Kagome fixed InuYasha some ramen to supplement his portion, they ate in comfortable relaxed silence.  
  
As the sun set Shippo grew restless again, a child can only stand so much silence.  
  
"Hey, Mary Jane!" He hopped over to her, causing her to look down at him as he put his tiny hands on one of her knees, "Sing another song."  
  
"...I have a few running through my mind that I wouldn't mind getting out, but..." she looked around, "I'm not sure how personal they would be. I don't know who they belong to."  
  
"I think it would be interesting to see what meaning we could get out of the songs." Miroku suggested giving an openly interested look to Mary Jane.  
  
"You just think that because she's already done you." InuYasha growled.  
  
"I'll sing." Mary Jane smiled mildly at InuYasha, "I'll start with me."  
  
She closed her eyes and felt the tune rising in her body, and the words creep into her mind. She opened her mouth and sang deep and slow.  
  
"Sometimes I feel Like I don't have a partner Sometimes I feel Like my only friend Is the city I live in The city of cities Lonely as I am Together we cry  
  
I drive on her streets 'Cause she's my companion I walk through her fields 'Cause she knows who I am  
  
It's hard to believe That there's nobody out there It's hard to believe That I'm all alone At least I have her love The city she loves me Lonely as I am Together we cry"  
  
Mary Jane opened her eyes and blinked a few times, "It's changed. Must be my failure to find my humanity."  
  
"Don't you have anything... happy?" Shippo asked. During the song he had moved to Kagome's knee.  
  
"With this group?" Mary Jane smiled sardonically.  
  
"Who's next?" Kagome asked nervously. She, along with everyone else except InuYasha, was curious as to what song she would sing next.  
  
Mary Jane glanced at Kagome and turned her gaze to the fire. She sang with a similar sad serene voice.  
  
"See the stone set in your eyes  
  
See the thorn twist in your side  
  
I wait for you  
  
Sleight of hand and twist of fate  
  
On a bed of nails he makes me wait  
  
And I wait....without you  
  
With or without you  
  
With or without you  
  
Through the storm we reach the shore  
  
I give it all but you want more  
  
And I'm waiting for you  
  
With or without you  
  
With or without you  
  
I can't live  
  
With or without you  
  
And you give yourself away  
  
And you give yourself away  
  
And you give  
  
And I give  
  
And I give myself away  
  
My hands are tied  
  
My body bruised, she's got me with  
  
Nothing left to win  
  
And nothing else to lose  
  
With or without you  
  
With or without you  
  
I can't live  
  
With or without you"  
  
Her voice faded away a slight complementing reverberation coming from the cave walls behind the group.  
  
"... That's Kagome isn't it?" Shippo looked at the singer sadly.  
  
"Shippo!" Kagome jumped, she had forgotten about him, "Maybe you should go to bed-"  
  
"Why? I know what goes on around here Kagome!" He pouted angrily, "I know about everyone's hurts and happiness. So... I'm staying up. Besides she hasn't done me yet." He sat down on the ground and crossed his arms, the very picture of InuYasha when he pouted.  
  
Kagome blinked at him, "A-alright Shippo, I'm sorry. You're right, you can stay. But no jokes."  
  
"I wouldn't do that. Not now, anyway." Shippo glared into the fire.  
  
Mary Jane sighed, "Should I continue?"  
  
Everyone nodded reluctantly, except InuYasha. He was thinking about the song that Shippo thought was Kagome's. But he came back to the present when Mary Jane started to sing again. Her pitch was higher this time, her head tilted back as if she were singing to the tree top  
  
"You see the world thru your cynical eyes  
  
You're a troubled young man I can tell  
  
You've got it all in the palm of your hand  
  
But your hand's wet with a sweat  
  
And you head needs a rest  
  
And you're fooling yourself  
  
If you don't believe it  
  
You're kidding yourself  
  
If you don't believe it  
  
Why must you be such an angry young man  
  
When your future looks quite bright to me  
  
How can there be such a sinister plan  
  
That could hide such a lamb  
  
Such a caring young man  
  
And you're fooling yourself  
  
If you don't believe it  
  
You're killing yourself  
  
If you don't believe it  
  
Get up, get up, get back on your feet  
  
You're the one they can't beat  
  
And you know it  
  
Come on, come on let's see what you've got  
  
Just take your best shot and don't blow it, Oh-"  
  
The singer choked on the words and coughed for a few minutes.  
  
"Any bets on who that was?" Shippo commented sarcastically.  
  
"I don't know, Shippo." Miroku held back a smile, "I would never refer to ... whoever that song refers to, as a caring lamb."  
  
"Shut up!" InuYasha barked and started to stand.  
  
"Stop it! All of you!" Kagome silenced the males with a withering stare, "and whoever it is can be very sweet, when he wants to be."  
  
"That's all of him I'm singing right now, I don't want to get into that mess, I'm depressed enough already." Mary Jane patted her chest delicately. She was a little disturbed that she couldn't get past the third person with InuYasha, but he was well guarded and closed. And she didn't want to push him. "Let's try someone else."  
  
Once again she closed her eyes and let the music take her. Her head tilted down a little and her voice came out somber with a quivering caused by repressed rage that faded into repressed inconsolable grief and back again in waves.  
  
"I see a red door and I want it painted black. No colors anymore I want them painted black. I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes. I have to turn my head until my darkness goes.  
  
I see a temple's stairs and they're all painted black. With flowers and my love both never to come back. I see people turn their heads and quickly look away. Like a newborn baby it just happens every day.  
  
I look inside myself and see my heart is black. I see my red door I must have it painted black. Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts. It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black.  
  
No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue. I could not foresee this happening to you. If I look hard enough into the setting sun. My love will laugh with me before the morning comes.  
  
I see a red door and I want it painted black No colors anymore I want them to turn black. I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes. I have to turn my head until my darkness goes."  
  
"...That's just disturbing." Shippo said after a few minutes of silence.  
  
Sango stood quietly and moved quickly into the cave and lay down on her bedroll with her face to the wall.  
  
"Well that was fun." InuYasha stood up as well, "after the next battle we should just pour salt in our wounds, it would take less time."  
  
"Sorry, I can only sing what I hear." Mary Jane watched as the group prepared for sleep.  
  
InuYasha jumped into the trees around the cave and disappeared. Kagome disappeared into the trees on the other side carrying a small bag and Shippo.  
  
Miroku leaned back against the cave wall near the mouth and secured the staff. Mary Jane got up and prepared her own bedroll.  
  
"You never did me." Shippo's small voice came up from behind her.  
  
"You still want me to?"  
  
He nodded slowly and sat down next to her. She sighed and closed her eyes. Her voice was forlorn and sweet with hope as she sang gently.  
  
"Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain.  
  
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again. Well, I've seen the steel and the concrete crumble, shine on me again.  
  
The proud and the mighty, all have stumbled, shine on me again. Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain.  
  
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again. They say that the tree of loving, shine on me again,  
  
grows on the bank of the river of suffering, shine on me again. Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain.  
  
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again. If only I could heal your sorrow, shine on me, again,  
  
I'd help you to find your new tomorrow, shine on me again. Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain.  
  
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again. Well, I've seen the steel and the concrete crumble, shine on me again.  
  
The proud and the mighty, all have stumbled, shine on me again. Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain.  
  
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again. Only you can climb that mountain, shine on me gain,  
  
If you want to drink from the golden fountain, shine on me again Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain.  
  
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again."  
  
Everyone was looking at them from their beds, silently. Shippo stood up and hugged Mary Jane.  
  
"Thank you Mary Jane." He released her and scuttled back to Kagome to sleep.  
  
*  
  
AN: I guess the mystery race remains a mystery... for now. Although you know more about them then you need to... for now (heh heh heh). The following thing? Kagome senses a kindred spirit. Mary Jane gets what she wants from men on her terms, and she doesn't know who, or what, she is right now. Sound familiar?  
  
Come on people review! I need feed back! 


	6. Mary Jane: Exit Stage West

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in. Nor do I own "Time for me to fly" by REO Speedwagon.  
  
Chapter 6: Mary Jane: Exit Stage West  
  
The dawn was still casting everything in a light shade of blue when the group started to wake. Dew covered them all and gave them a small chill as they began to venture out of the bedrolls.  
  
The sound of laughter, simple and joyful drifted in from the camp fire. The slight murmurings of conversation could be heard over the lively crackling of a reviving fire as the stragglers realized that the laugh was Kagome's. A laugh that they hadn't heard for many weeks.  
  
Sango, Miroku and Shippo looked at each other curiously, each wondering what Kagome and Mary Jane were talking about to bring out this side of Kagome.  
  
They were creeping closer to the mouth, to eavesdrop, when a short sentence was followed by a sweet voice, singing quietly. And it wasn't Mary Jane.  
  
"I've been around for you, I've been up and down for you, But I just can't get any relief.  
  
I've swallowed my pride for you, I lived and lied for you, But you still make me feel like a thief."  
  
Kagome giggled a little before she moved on to the next verse.  
  
"You got me stealin' your love away, 'cause you never give it. Peeling the years away, And we can't relive it.  
  
Oh, I make you laugh, And you make me cry, I believe it's time for me to fly.  
  
You said we'd work it out, You said tha'cha had no doubt, That deep down we were really in love.  
  
Oh, but I'm tired of holding on To a feelin' I know is gone. I do believe that I've had enough.  
  
I've had enough of the falseness Of a worn out relation, Enough of the jealousy And the intoleration,  
  
Oh, I make you laugh, And you make me cry, I believe it's time for me to fly.  
  
Mary Jane joined in with the chorus.  
"Time for me to fly"  
  
"I want to set myself free."  
  
"Time for me to Fly"  
  
"That's just the way it's got to be."  
  
"Oo"  
  
"I know it hurts to say good bye, But it's time for me to fly."  
  
"How do you know this song?" Mary Jane asked lightly as she placed a small pot of water on a rock that was settled almost in the fire. "I thought only my people could hear such music."  
  
"I don't come from here." Kagome cleared her throat nervously, "In my land you can hear those songs. I actually translated that song for my English class last year. It just sort of stayed with me."  
  
Mary Jane simply nodded. It was nice to talk to her. At least it was for Kagome. She didn't have to worry about saying the wrong thing or being thought crazy when she said something strange to her. Because Mary Jane had no idea what normal was.  
  
Kagome sighed, maybe it was unfair of her to use her ignorance like that.  
  
"What the hell kind of song is that?" InuYasha dropped down from his treetop resting place.  
  
"Did I wake you InuYasha?" Kagome asked, concerned. It wasn't often that InuYasha got to sleep.  
  
"No. Why were you singing like that?" he demanded, "Didn't we have enough of that crap last night?"  
  
"It's just a song InuYasha!" Kagome stood to confront him, "One that's about being sad and unhappy and having the strength to do something about it when you can! It's sad and hopeful and I liked it. I don't know why it matters what songs I sing. It's the only one like that that I really know. And I wanted to share it with Mary Jane before she left. It had nothing to do with you so but out!"  
  
"What would it have to do with me?" InuYasha yelled back.  
  
"I don't know! It seemed to offend you somehow." Kagome crossed her arms and sat by the fire again, "You've been such a jerk lately, do you hate me so much now?"  
  
InuYasha looked over at Mary Jane, who had been poking the fire calmly this whole time. "I don't hate you." He said, "I am a jerk, I always have been. I don't know what to do. You don't listen to me anymore and that could get you hurt!"  
  
"Mary Jane isn't evil," Kagome sighed, "She's confused and lost and foreign."  
  
"That doesn't mean that you can just ignore me!" InuYasha continued.  
  
"That's what I used to do!" Kagome yelled up at him, "You're being as much of a jerk as you were when we started traveling together. How am I supposed to react?"  
  
InuYasha stood silently, an angry frown on his face. Yes, he had returned to the way he was back then, but what was he supposed to do? He had no idea how to deal with Kagome ever since they rescued her from Sorrell. He wanted to go back to the way things were, he just went too far back. He could fix that.  
  
"Keh!" and he was gone again, back into the trees.  
  
"The water's ready." Mary Jane announced.  
  
*  
  
"Just follow the path to the stream and head south." Mary Jane smiled at them, her pack in place on her back, "That'll bring you back to the main River Road in no time."  
  
The group nodded their thanks and prepared to leave.  
  
"One more thing," She looked around quickly, "which way to the western lands?"  
  
"... West." Miroku said after a moment, "Why are you looking for the western lands?"  
  
"Rumor has it that Gab- Heh," Mary Jane gave a bashful laugh, she almost gave away the name of the writer of histories she was looking for. Not a very good way to start their relationship, "the girl I was looking for, she's supposed to be in a castle in those parts."  
  
"Go west, and a little north." InuYasha stated, a little more blandly than normal.  
  
"Right," Mary Jane looked around and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "and that would be..."  
  
InuYasha pointed over her shoulder.  
  
"Thanks, Um, Good journeys to you." She said quickly then turned and walked off in the direction InuYasha had indicated singing softly about music coming from teeth.  
  
"Do you think she'll survive?" Miroku asked as they began down the path to the stream.  
  
InuYasha just shrugged and watched as Kagome and Sango lead the way.  
  
*  
  
A/N: Mary Jane is gone, It's the last song for a long while, I promise. Though bits of it may show up later. I can see why some people didn't like her. She didn't come off very well for one thing, but I couldn't seem to rewrite her without loosing the integrity of her plight and character.  
  
About InuYasha's being such a jerk. I think I finally explained it in this chapter. The problem is the way I think InuYasha's mind works and trying to explain it in the story with out making him look stupid. It's a perfectly good way for a mind to work, but his hasn't been trained really and it is a little difficult to work it around social situations anyway. But more on his mind latter. Much Later. For now just know that his behavior will improve now that he realizes what was going on. Sorry I didn't explain that earlier. 


	7. Hungry Eyes

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.  
  
Chapter 7: Hungry Eyes  
  
Kagome walked ahead of the group at an unusually fast pace, working hard to keep the boys behind her. Shippo and InuYasha had been arguing again and Miroku's additions to their little "game" made Kagome boil. She couldn't stand the looks she would catch him giving Sango either. Just made her want to spit.  
  
It had been some days since they had left Mary Jane and began to travel north and east, the direction the unfriendly miko had told InuYasha Sorrell was traveling. She sorely missed the strange foreign girl. There was something about her that had comforted Kagome, maybe because she had been lost too. Not lost because she didn't know north from east, but... lost in her own skin, like she didn't know what she was, she didn't even know if she was human or not. But she had managed to push on in hopes of finding out. She told Kagome that she planed on trying to blend in again after she did whatever she was going to do with her friend in the western lands.  
  
And if she could keep up the hope of finding herself when she never knew who she really was, surely Kagome could maintain the hope of regaining her old self, buried deep beneath the shattered green eyes and parlous balance of energy.  
  
Now it was just her and Sango, and the boys, traveling through the mountains. Villages were few and far between here and they were thinly populated, so inquiries went quick, and left them sometimes with hours to just sit and watch the villagers work or mill around. And they took every minute of that to show her their ignorance, coarseness, baseness, lack of self control, lack of respect, and neediness. Weak sniveling little creatures that had nothing better to do than get into pissing matches and figure out ways to entrap, use and beat down their women.  
  
The worst thing was while she was traveling, lost in thoughts of her plight, or of when she might get to see her family again, the _boys_ would start to talk, or fight. _And they would look just like those village men._ How she hated them for that. Every time one of them would open their mouth she would pick up her pace and try to get as far as possible up the path to avoid the sound of their voice. But she would still hear them. If she went too far ahead, or lagged too far behind, InuYasha would call out to her, or worse, come for her.  
  
Why wouldn't they just leave her alone.  
  
"Hey, Kagome!" InuYasha called out. Kagome forced her feet to still, "It's time to stop for lunch."  
  
Stupid, arrogant bastard couldn't even feed himself.

Kagome sat a bit away from the others, watching as they ate their solid food happily and talked their lively talk. She looked down at her cooling broth with a slightly disgusted expression.  
  
She couldn't stomach any more vegetable broth.  
  
Miroku and Shippo laughed and the sound grated on her nerves. She needed some time alone, away from _men_.  
  
A walk, she decided, might help to sooth her nerves. She stood and drifted away easily. No one noticed as she walked away and melted into the forest.  
  
The trees masked the sounds of the camp she left behind, all that she could hear was the sound of the wind through the leaves and the burbling of a stream that was flowing somewhere off to the left. The light fell in a dappled pattern on the forest floor after passing through the thick canopy, casting a strange greenish hue that drew Kagome in. It was peaceful, quiet and new here. Mostly quiet.  
  
She could breathe here. Relax here. Here there was no need to try not to notice idiocy. No need to listen. No need to ignore the need-  
  
"Kagome?"  
  
Crap.  
  
Kagome turned, folded her arms and regarded Kouga coolly.  
  
"What are you doing out here? Alone." The wolf prince took a few steps toward her, "Where's the dog turd?"  
  
Well...he's powerful.  
  
"I needed some time away from them." Kagome blinked slowly.  
  
Just full of life.  
  
Kouga looked around, confused. Something wasn't right about Kagome. But it was her, it had to be. She smelled like her... mostly.  
  
"Are you feeling alright Kagome?" Kouga took another cautious step toward her.  
  
"I'm fine, just... hungry" Kagome looked away.  
  
Not really as powerful as InuYasha, but...  
  
"Give me your shards." She said suddenly, surprising herself.  
  
"What?" Kouga practically fell over in shock.  
  
"I want your shikon shards Kouga." Kagome stepped towards him slowly, "Don't you want to give them to me? Don't you love me? InuYasha gives me his shards."  
  
"No! I mean..." Kouga backed away from her with every step she took, "I need the shards to get vengeance for my brothers."  
  
Kagome stopped walking and made a big deal of looking thoughtful, "InuYasha doesn't need shards... InuYasha doesn't need shards to keep up with you, in a fight anyway. I guess InuYasha-"  
  
"NO! I'm stronger then him! Faster then him! I'm the better youkai!" Kouga's pride temporarily overpowered his unnatural sense of danger and he moved towards his woman again, "I can treat you like you deserve. That piece of dirt doesn't know what he has with you. I see you for the treasure you are-"  
  
"SHUT UP!" InuYasha roared from his perch in a tree. He had just arrived in time to hear Kouga's outburst. He jumped down and then to Kagome's side, "Shut the fuck up! You don't know anything about Kagome, or humans. Except how they taste."  
  
Kouga snarled at InuYasha, he didn't need that being brought up now. Not with Kagome doubting him. "That's finished. You are supposed to be protecting her, but you let her wonder off. Again!"  
  
"How I protect Kagome is none of your business." InuYasha snarled back.  
  
Kagome, meanwhile, had retreated back into the trees a bit to watch. She felt so strange. Any minute now they would start to fight physically, and she couldn't really care. When she thought about one of them dying she was... displeased, though she knew that she would feel differently when the event drew near, and would probably try to stop them.  
  
But now she didn't care about that. She was thinking about Kouga. For the first time ever he had managed to sneak up on her. _Really_ sneak up on her. She sensed nothing when he was approaching her. She could see them now, faintly. It was like when she first started looking for the jewel.  
  
Kagome shook her head, she was just... unbalanced. It would get better.  
  
"SHUT UP!" InuYasha lunged for Kouga, and Kouga prepared to counter, but they stopped when he heard the noise of many youkai.  
  
They turned in Kagome's direction.  
  
Kagome looked down. A large spike was protruding from her stomach area.  
  
'That's never happened before.' She thought as she faded out of consciousness and slid off the spike to the ground.  
  
It was InuYasha that jumped forward and grabbed Kagome. He was closer. Kouga distracted the creature that had impaled her.  
  
InuYasha jumped back, into the trees. Kouga followed him.  
  
"I thought they disbanded." InuYasha grumbled. It was a portion of the youkai horde that Kagome and the others had fought while he was chasing shadows.  
  
"You know them?" Kouga watched the horde through the undergrowth.  
  
"Shards." Kagome croaked from over InuYasha's shoulder, "Leader, a shard."  
  
"Yeah, kill the leader and the rest will run." Kouga squinted into the growing group, "Nothing else to hold _those_ youkai together."  
  
InuYasha scowled and put Kagome down. She was far too pale, but shouldn't she be more... dead? "Which one has the shard Kagome?"  
  
"The ugly one." Struggled to open her eyes, "Big, ugly, smug. Behind..."  
  
"Right, you heard her." InuYasha faced the wall of youkai that was advancing on them. "Get the leader before they get any closer."  
  
InuYasha drew his sword and jumped out into the fight with Kouga. He was slashing with his sword, barely paying attention to what he was killing. It would have been easy to use his swords special attack to sweep them all away, but he wasn't sure where his friends were. What if they had gone searching for Kagome too?  
  
The horde was made of weak youkai, barely capable of triggering the swords' attack when standing together. But at the back, smirking as he watched Kouga struggling with his lackeys, was a large purple... thing with horns and a fringe on his head and one round eye. That had to be the thing Kagome was talking about.  
  
The purple creature refocused past them, to where Kagome was hidden. His army was slowly pushing the two defenders back toward the girl they were guarding. The leader wondered what was so important about a dead girl that they would fight so fiercely to protect her, or her body. She must possess something of great value, maybe even more jewel shards.  
  
InuYasha soon realized that they were simply out numbered. A glance at Kouga, who was a few feet to his left, gave him an idea.  
  
"Kouga! You see the purple guy?" he yelled over the noise of the army. Kouga gave a short nod before dogging and attacking a youkai that usually wouldn't even dare look his kind in the eye.  
  
"Kouga!" InuYasha called again, "Jump!"  
  
Kouga jumped up as InuYasha swung his sword sending a smaller version of his most powerful attack through the edge of the attackers and into the ground.  
  
Kouga realized InuYasha's plan immediately. He had a few seconds before the second line of youkai recovered and attacked again. He changed direction in mid air and aimed for the purple smirking guy. He kicked him in the face while he was watching InuYasha being pushed back faster than before, then sliced him neatly apart with his claws.  
  
He really didn't like doing that. It would be difficult to remove the smell from his claws. But it was necessary in order to find the shards, assuming Kagome was unconscious again, and was also a power display for the lesser youkai that had been taking his orders.  
  
He was right. As soon as he had disassembled the leader the others slowly stopped fighting and ran away.  
  
InuYasha was left panting as they turned tail, but quickly recovered as Kouga watched the chunks of youkai, waiting for one to start moving. Ignoring him, InuYasha turned to Kagome's hiding place.  
  
Kagome was leaning against a tree, standing.  
  
"Give me the shard Kouga." She said flatly.  
  
"Kagome," Kouga looked up, concerned, "you shouldn't be up."  
  
"Don't worry about me Kouga," she panted, a pained look on her face, "Give me the shard."  
  
"I need to keep this shard Kagome." Kouga said, "I need to get my revenge so I can come back for you. It's not like you guys use them anyway."  
  
Kagome took a deep shuddering breath, "Then go, warn your pack of the horde."  
  
Kouga's eyes went to Kagome's wound and it looked like he was going to say something.  
  
"JUST GO!" InuYasha yelled, "I'll take care of Kagome."  
  
"Go, Kouga." Kagome closed her eyes.  
  
Kouga nodded and took off into the forest.  
  
Kagome sank to the ground, unconscious."Kagome!" Shippo squealed unhappily when the group met InuYasha and Kagome halfway back to the camp.  
  
InuYasha was holding Kagome delicately, trying to prevent more damage to her injured belly. "We were attacked." InuYasha said simply.  
  
"Kouga?" Miroku asked. InuYasha had run off claiming that the wolf was in the area.  
  
"He was there," InuYasha continued to trudge past his shocked friends, "he killed the leader and took the shard."  
  
"He left Kagome like this?" Shippo hopped onto InuYasha's shoulder and looked down at the remains of her bloody shirt, "Is she ok?"  
  
"... She was standing and talking." InuYasha answered as they reached the lunch site, "She told Kouga to leave."  
  
Sango knelt beside Kagome once InuYasha laid her down and started to sort through Kagome's massive first aid kit.  
  
InuYasha sat under a nearby tree to reflect as the others ran around tending to Kagome. She had taken a spike through the middle, and not a small one either. It had been about the diameter of his fist. InuYasha himself would have had some difficulty fighting after a blow like that. But Kagome wasn't him. Kagome was human, and most humans have difficulty moving after getting a sword through the trunk. But Kagome had managed to get herself up and walk to the edge of the battlefield.  
  
How could she have managed to do that? Kagome's just a fragile human.  
  
Isn't she?  
  
Kagome woke up to a terrible numbness in her middle. The numbness itself was somehow bordering on pain. It was almost as if her whole abdomen had fallen asleep and was thinking about waking up, but not.  
  
Somehow, she hadn't thought it would feel like that.  
  
At least it was quiet now. Now she could think and wallow in silence.  
  
Slowly she opened her eyes and found herself looking into a brightly burning campfire. It had no right to burn that brightly. Not when her life was so dark. Not when it couldn't help her find her way back.  
  
Kagome could no longer hide from the fact that she wasn't getting any better. She was getting worse. She had a feeling she shouldn't be alive right now, if she was still human.  
  
Maybe she couldn't die now. Maybe she was immortal... no, Sorrell died so she couldn't be immortal. Just really hard to kill. Still, she wasn't really human. That was the important thing.  
  
There had been this strange voice, no... push, something telling her about the power in Kouga and InuYasha while she was in the forest. That... compulsion to feed, to take that power.  
  
She was slowly becoming a succubus and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it.  
  
The worst part was her friends. She would let them down. She could barely sense the shards anymore, unless she knew they were there to find. How long before she couldn't see them at all anymore? How long before she couldn't purify them anymore? How long before she really hated InuYasha? How long before he ceased to be anything other than food? What would she do then?  
  
What about her family? She couldn't go back to them as a... as what she was becoming. So... that leaves her here? In the past? She didn't like the thought of that. She didn't like the thought of never seeing her family again. Hell, she didn't like the thought of a lifetime without plumbing!  
  
Several lifetimes.  
  
As a succubus.  
  
Kagome sighed and forced herself to sit up. She felt dizzy and drained. Utterly out of energy. It would take a long time for her to save enough energy to heal, if she lived that long. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized a recharge would get it done faster. She lifted her last uniform top to look at her wound. Of course it was wrapped up. She would have to wait until the already very wet bandages were changed before she got a look at it.  
  
"It's not closing." InuYasha startled her by sitting down next to her. He stared into the fire looking very tired.  
  
"InuYasha!" Kagome hissed, so as not to wake the others, "Don't do that! What did you say?"  
  
"The wound isn't sealing." He repeated in a detached voice, "You won't live if it doesn't seal."  
  
"Don't be so sure about that." Kagome tugged her shirt back down and pouted, "I shouldn't be alive now."  
  
"I know." InuYasha growled, he knew that very well, "But if my wounds don't seal, I die too." He looked at Kagome, his concern showing plainly, "Sorrell died that way, remember? Kagome, take my energy."  
  
Kagome glared at him for a moment before she realized that not getting better might not be such a bad thing. She lay back down on her pallet, "I'll be fine."  
  
"Kagome," InuYasha moved to kneel beside her, "Take my energy. We need you to get better."  
  
"No." Kagome stated and closed her eyes. She would take her chances. She would not feed. If she couldn't survive without it she would die. She was Ok with that.  
  
"Kagome." InuYasha growled.  
  
"No!"  
  
"Kagome, stop this bullshit and kiss me!" InuYasha insisted, "We can't waste anymore time here!"  
  
"NO!" Kagome shouted.  
  
InuYasha growled again, Kagome had to take his energy, she had to get better. Kagome was supposed to live, damn it!  
  
In an instant InuYasha lunged forward and pressed his lips to hers. He wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but he remembered what it felt like when Kagome was taking his energy.  
  
Kagome tried to get away, but InuYasha was too strong, too fast. He held her head still. She tried not to take that pull that she wanted so much. But InuYasha pushed.  
  
She didn't want to take it. But it tasted so good. Soon Kagome was pulling the energy out of him. She didn't even realize how passionate the kiss looked, or felt, she was just so hungry.  
  
InuYasha pulled away, and had to push Kagome back down against her bed. Between the kiss and the energy loss, he was horribly dizzy and uncoordinated.  
  
He stood unsteadily and stumbled over to his tree. Kagome blinked up at the illuminated branches above her. She could feel the feeling returning to her stomach, the wound was healing itself. She would live.  
  
Kagome closed her eyes and felt the tears fall into her hair.A/N: Well, here I am again, all dark and depressing. Just wait till you see what I have in mind for next chapter   
  
And yes, Kouga did just kill... the Purple People Eater. (bangs head repeatedly against key board) (I don't own Him either.) 


	8. Perchance To Sleep?

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 8: Perchance to … Sleep?

Late the next morning InuYasha grudgingly allowed consciousness to drag him back to the real world. Sango was tending the fire, preparing lunch. Miroku was meditating. Shippo was lying on his stomach near the fire, completely bored.

Kagome was sitting up, leaning against a tree. She looked like she was thinking, hard. And she didn't look pleased.

"InuYasha!" Shippo jumped on him as soon as his eyes finished opening, "Kagome's injuries are gone!" he chattered happily.

"Shut up!" InuYasha scowled at the bouncy child, "You talk too loud… How is Kagome?"

Shippo stopped bouncing and sat on InuYasha's knee to think, "Um, she's not happy. She didn't want me around, she said she had to think. She's acting kind of weird actually. She _is_ going to return to normal, right InuYasha?"

Shippo look up at him with a worried expression. InuYasha didn't have an answer to that. Before she was injured he had hoped that she would, but after she survived that wound…. Then again she hadn't been wounded before so…. But she had been acting so strange and getting more… detached?

Suddenly Kagome stood. She looked around, moving her head in a jerky, unnatural way, then walked into the woods behind her, gliding coolly.

The others looked up from their chores.

"Where the hell does she think she's going?" InuYasha stood, knocking Shippo to the ground absently.

"Leave her alone, InuYasha." Sango spoke to the fire, "She… needs some time alone."

InuYasha looked at each of his friends, they all seemed to think he should stay away from her.

"Keh, like I'm listening to you." InuYasha turned and followed Kagome. After what happened yesterday, he couldn't let her go alone. 

InuYasha found Kagome in the woods not too far from the camp. Her back was to him but the heavy scent of tears hung in the air around her, and her arms were folded to her chest. She was crying.

"Kagome..." He called uncertainly.

"Do you care for me?" She asked in a steady voice, her back still to him.

"What?" he stepped back at the unexpected question.

"Do you care for me _at all_, InuYasha?" she asked again, slightly louder.

"Of course I care for you Kagome! What kind of-"

He was cut off by her abruptly turning about to shout angrily, "then why didn't you let me die?"

"What?" he stood back, shocked.

"I _wanted_ to die InuYasha." Kagome's voice grew sad as she looked at the ground in front of her. "I was so close to dying and you wouldn't let me. I don't want to be this… this _thing_ I'm becoming." She looked up, into his eyes, pleading, "How can you not hate me? I feed off of the life force of young men. How can you still… care about me?"

"I could never hate you Kagome." InuYasha stated softly, ignoring the strange feeling that he had this discussion before.

Kagome looked at him, confused for a second before understanding swept across her face. "…What do you care about InuYasha? Is it my face? My hair? My eyes? My scent? All those things that remind you of that cold undead _bitch_!" Kagome started and put her hand over her mouth, "Is that all you see in me? In _us_? A shadow? A figure? Did you even know me? Do you miss me like I do? …This isn't me InuYasha. I don't say things like that! I don't _think_ things like that! Not for long anyway. I-I'm dying InuYasha. I'm fading away, turning into something and someone else and you can't see it!"

InuYasha remained silent, just staring at Kagome, "Kagome… I…"

"I did a lot of thinking last night InuYasha, my mind is so clear now." Kagome crossed her arms and assumed a stance of casual business. "Do you remember when I begged you to let me stay? I knew you chose Kikyo, you didn't say that but I knew, and I begged you to let me stay, to let me be your friend and help you. But that's not what we were, was it InuYasha? Every time you went to Kikyo, I felt betrayed, even though I knew I didn't have the right. I felt like you were running around on me. And you only made things worse. It may have been a strange courtship but, in your twisted misguided way, you _tried_ to court me. And prevent others from courting me. I can't even be _nice_ to any other male without you getting into a fight with them and yelling at me, _doubting_ me. I never gave you any real reason to doubt me, or my feelings, I, I _begged_ you InuYasha! How could you doubt me after that?"

InuYasha just stood silently, how was he supposed to answer her? What could he say to any of that that wouldn't make things worse?

Kagome turned her back on him, unwilling to look at his face anymore, "It hurt InuYasha. It would hurt when you doubted me for no reason and then acted like it was nothing for you to run off to Kikyo-"

"You know why I do that!" InuYasha shouted, unable to stay quiet on this, "I always come back don't I?"

"No InuYasha," Kagome said meticulously and poisonously, "Kikyo always _leaves_, _I_ always come back. I always _took_ you back. Last night I realized that we are not a couple InuYasha. I am not the wronged girlfriend or the wife of an unfaithful man. You _chose_ _Kikyo_! I AM the _other_ woman in _you and Kikyo's _relationship. I don't want to be the other woman InuYasha. I won't be. From this point on you're on your _own_. We are nothing more than traveling companions, since you can't seem to grasp the concept of _friends_. I will still help you to gather the shards, that is my responsibility after all."

"You're not healed yet Kagome," InuYasha reasoned, "you don't know what you're saying."

So, he didn't get it, huh? Kagome turned she wanted to see his reaction to what she was about to say, "Don't you get it InuYasha? You are nothing to me now. I don't need or want you anymore. You have nothing to offer me but your energy. Go, away."

She watched as his expression closed in. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, whether or not he believed her. If he understood what she was saying. He just turned away wearing his closed off hostile expression and returned to camp.

Kagome stood where she was, just within screaming distance of the camp but far enough away to feel really alone. It was beautiful here. Surrounded by life, the sounds of life. The deep wet smell of the leaves rotting under the thin cover of the freshly fallen.

"Kagome?" Sango interrupted her stillness, "What did you say to InuYasha? I haven't seen him look like that since… actually I've never seen him look like… that."

"I set some things straight. What are you doing here Sango?" Kagome gave her a cool look.

Sango stood there, in her daily wear, gripping her hiraikotsu tightly with one hand, "InuYasha told me where you were. He doesn't think it's safe for us, any of us, to be alone right now."

"I think, we should start traveling again." Kagome turned her back to Sango, "we're all healthy again so I think we should continue. I think… we should go this way."

Sango looked in the direction Kagome indicated, "Kagome, that would take us away from the road that Sorrell-"

"I'm traveling this way." Kagome interrupted, "You can do what you like."

"… I'll tell the others, wait for us Ok?" Sango turned to leave but changed her mind, "You'll get better Kagome. You wouldn't have been pulled through the well, and allowed to travel back and forth, go through what you've been through, to end up being turned into a youkai. I can't believe fate would be so cruel."

She walked back to camp to get the others and left Kagome thinking in the quiet woods.

TTT

Late the next day it started to rain, hard. It was enough to push them on through the woods in search of better cover then leaves. And they did find it, eventually, in the middle of nowhere, a small farm appeared in the woods. The group approached cautiously, Sango and Miroku in the lead the rest a few steps behind.

Miroku knocked on the doorframe and a stern looking man moved the reed covering to greet them.

"Good evening sir, I was wondering-"

"It's raining really hard and you travelers have nowhere to stay right?" the man scowled.

"Uh, yes-"

"Well, come in." The man stepped back to let them enter, "Can't leave people standing in the rain."

The room they walked into was just over half the size of the hut. Six children of various ages, from twelve to five, were huddled around a tired looking woman who was tending a pot of stew that was simmering over the cook fire in the center of the room.

"We don't have much to offer but we'll share what we have." The woman spoke, "The stew is almost ready."

"We have supplies," Miroku stated in a warm manner, "We would like to supplement the meal. I am Miroku; this young lady is Sango, Kagome, InuYasha and Shippo. Thank you for inviting us into your home, I realize we are an unusual group."

One of the children walked up to Miroku and tugged on his robe, "Sir monk? Why do you travel with youkai?" he looked at InuYasha, Kagome and Shippo.

"Ah, they are our friends and we are on a quest together." Miroku answered, casually.

Kagome closed her green starburst eyes and took a deep breath, "I'm tired, may I lay down somewhere?"

"… Yes," the lady stood and led her into the dimly lit back room. It was almost full of futons. There was a shelf that ran around the room just above head level with many different jars and baskets, "We get more visitors then you would think out here. Don't mind Shina," she looked at a young adolescent girl sitting on one of the futons, leaning against the wall with at vacant expression, "She hit her head a few years ago, she won't bother you. You can sleep here."

The woman unrolled a futon for Kagome, near the opposite wall.

"Thank you." Kagome said as the woman left her alone, somewhat hesitantly. Kagome put her pack at the head of her bed and took up a position that nearly mirrored the catatonic girl across from her.

TTT

"Is it alright to leave her alone with our daughter?" The man asked, not unkindly.

"Kagome's… type prays on other victims." Sango explained haltingly, "Your daughter is perfectly safe with her."

Shippo, who was perched on InuYasha's shoulder, whispered to him, "Why are they calling Kagome a youkai?"

"They don't want them to be afraid of Kagome." InuYasha whispered back, "What should we say, she's sick? Under a spell? It's too hard to explain."

Shippo nodded to show his understanding. But he knew that had to hurt Kagome, she never liked it when people thought she was a kitsune.

Even if she should consider it a compliment.

TTT

Kagome listened to the murmurings of the happy family and her tired friends through the wall she was leaning on. She didn't belong there anymore. She had tried to tell InuYasha that earlier but… it came out all wrong.

Or right.

Did she really think that way? She couldn't tell any more. All she was sure of was she had wanted to hurt him, she wanted to see him hurt. She wanted to get away from him, she hated him so much. But she still loved him.

She wasn't herself anymore. She shouldn't be capable of talking like she had back there. Was that a part of the transformation? She just went along, just… being and doing and talking, and everything seemed fine. But then, when she had time to calm down, or think, when she found herself content again, she would realize what she had said, or done, or thought, and she realized how much she was changing. And how much she hated who she was becoming. And there wasn't anything anyone could do about it.

She didn't want any part of it. She didn't want to be so cold. That's why she was ready to welcome the death that was brought on by her own carelessness, but he wouldn't let her. She wanted to die, and he forced her to live. Now what would she do?

Kagome was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice her roommate get up and start to grab things from the shelf above her. She only noticed when the girl put a tray, including a lit candle, down in front of her.

Kagome blinked at the girl, "Hello. I hope I didn't disturb you. I was just…. Are you alright?"

The girls' expression was just as blank as it had been before as she knelt on the other side of the tray, "Choose." She whispered in a hoarse voice.

Kagome looked down at the tray, on one side was a dark cup with a dark liquid inside. On the other side was a leaf shaped, black bladed dagger with a hilt made of dark wood, "Choose what?"

"One of three paths before you. Choose now." the girl answered.

"I only see two… things." Kagome looked at the girl curiously.

"Continue, oblivion, rebirth. Choose." The girl recited.

Kagome looked around. 'Continue? …Continue as I am, I could just lay back on the futon and ignore her. Oblivion? Stop the whole thing, for good. The dagger. I am awfully tired of … everything. Rebirth? That must be the poison. I drink that and start over, better luck next time. How did I know that it's poison?'

Kagome leaned forward and considered the objects on the tray.

TTT

InuYasha watched as Shippo and Kirara fell asleep with the youngest of the farmers children, all curled up in a strange ball of fur and youth.

Suddenly there was a loud clatter in the back room. Everyone, well, the adults, ran to see what was going on.

InuYasha reached the room first, he saw the farmers' oldest daughter was slumping over where she knelt before an upturned tray. Kagome was laying on a futon, her body jerking unnaturally as her eyes stared blankly into space. A thick, dark liquid was on her lips, a small cup lay next to one of her hands. By the time he reached her side she was already dead.


	9. Sweet Dreams

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.  
  
Why do I get the feeling that you didn't believe that I killed her?  
  
Chapter 9: Sweet Dreams  
  
Shippo woke up to the sounds of shouting, which confused him after his quiet dream. He stood up on wobbling legs and tottled to the door. InuYahsa was holding a up a strange young girl by the collar and yelling at her, while her father and mother yelled at him and pulled on his arms, trying to get him to let go. Sango was sitting on the futon crying and holding Kagome tightly and Miroku was trying to pry InuYashas' hands off the girls' clothes and calm him down.  
  
The empty eyed girl shouted above them all "Choose Now! Two paths lay before you. Choose now before it's too late!"  
  
"What the fuck are you talking about?" InuYahsa shook her again, "What did you do to Kagome?"  
  
"Seek your kitsunes' sister! She will not see you!" and with that what light the girls face had possessed faded as her eyes closed.  
  
"What the fuck does that mean?" InuYahsa yelled at the girl.  
  
"Put her down InuYahsa," Miroku gave another tug at his hand, "She can't help us."  
  
"Nothing can help her!" Sango wailed as she rocked Kagome's body, "She's dead!"  
  
InuYahsa dropped the girl and turned to stare at Sango. The girls parents rushed to their daughter on the floor.  
  
"She's not dead!" Shippo shouted at the group. He ran up to Sango and Kagome.  
  
"She's cold." Sango said sadly, "Look, her lips are blue."  
  
"She's not dead!" Shippo insisted. "The Ladies wouldn't let her die!"  
  
"Shippo..." Sango reached one hand out to him sadly, but he jumped away.  
  
"Shippo, what ladies are you talking about?" Miroku knelt to his level.  
  
Shippo sighed, "I had a dream, I was in a glittering cave, three ladies, one young, one old and one sort of in the middle. The young one was pulling a thread off a spindle. The middle one took it and dyed it and made it thicker, and the old one weaved it in this huge tapestry! They were talking about Kagome, they said her thread was at its thinnest, it was about to break. They said that they would weave Kagome a new body! A stronger body. We just have to give it time."  
  
Miroku moved over to Sango and convinced her to release Kagome back onto the futon. He looked into her dull eyes and felt her cold cheek. She seemed pretty dead to him, "Shippo, sometimes a dream is just a dream."  
  
"No," InuYahsa whispered, "we'll wait."  
  
InuYahsa crouched down next to Kagomes' head and stared at her face.

TTTTT

The morning sun found InuYahsa and Shippo in identical positions, with identical expressions, staring at Kagome's body.  
  
"How goes the vigil?" Miroku entered the room.  
  
"No change." InuYahsa said morosely.  
  
"But she hasn't progressed!" Shippo chirped, "She hasn't gone all stiff."  
  
InuYahsa resisted the urge to look at, or hit, the kit, "You're a morbid little runt."  
  
"But it's true!" Shippo shifted his position excitedly, "If she was really dead that would have happened ages ago. Where have you been?"  
  
"The family's oldest daughter has fallen ill." Miroku said, "She isn't likely to survive the day."  
  
"She's better off than Kagome." InuYahsa scowled as Kagomes' body gave another twitch. It wasn't doing that as often or as violently as before though.  
  
"Apparently her health has been failing for a few weeks." Miroku ignored InuYahsa, for now, "But she hadn't been well since she fell. The family considers it a blessing really. And it truly is a blessing that they don't blame you for her condition."  
  
"I don't give a flying fuck what they think." InuYahsa growled, "That bitch killed Kagome."  
  
"She's not dead yet." Shippo insisted. "What's a flying fuck?"  
  
"Shippo," Miroku started only to pause in thought, "I... don't know."  
  
"It's something you should never say again." Sango replied curtly.  
  
"Good morning Sango." Shippo chirped without turning around, "Kagome isn't any more dead than she was last night."  
  
"Um, that's... good."  
  
"She hasn't got all stiff." InuYahsa clarified.  
  
"As enlightening and uplifting as this conversation has been I-" Miroku tried to excuse himself.  
  
"Shut up!" InuYahsa hissed and leaned forward. He put his ear to Kagome's mouth. It twitched convulsively when a weak stream of air ruffled the fur, "She's breathing!"  
  
The family was happy that Kagome seemed to be recovering from her death. But their joy was tempered by the true death of their oldest daughter. They held a funeral that after noon with Miroku's help.  
  
InuYahsa and Shippo never left Kagome's side.  
  
"Um, InuYahsa?" Shippo asked quietly  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"Do you see what I see?" Shippo looked up at InuYahsa.  
  
"I said shut up." InuYahsa growled. He saw it, but he wasn't going to think about what it meant until he was sure.  
  
"I think we should roll her over." Shippo twitched his tail nervously.  
  
"... In a minute." InuYahsa relented, "That girl said I should seek my kitsunes' sister. What did that mean?"  
  
Shippo shrugged, "I don't have a sister... that I know of."  
  
"Are you sure?" InuYahsa yawned, it had been a long night.  
  
"Well..." Shippo thought hard, "I really don't think I have any living relatives. But if I did, they would be in, or around my fathers' territory."  
  
Sango and Miroku returned from the funeral, "They have asked that we stay another night." Miroku said, "We agreed, in Kagome's interest."  
  
"Look!" Shippo jumped up to Mirokus shoulder, "Kagome got her color back!"  
  
"Yes! She looks... much.... Houshi-sama?" Sango turned to Miroku.  
  
"I see it too Sango." Miroku replied evenly.  
  
"Now Sangos' colors are gone." Shippo giggled in delight, "Come on InuYahsa, let's roll Kagome over!"

TTTTTTTT

The next morning InuYahsa left the stuffy hut to sit in a tree near the nearby and think. He could no longer doubt what he had been seen, as disturbing at it was to him. But Kagome was alive, and that was all that mattered now. Wasn't it?  
  
InuYahsa growled and decided to check on her again. Just to be sure. He avoided the family gathered outside and slipped into the hut.  
  
"Where have you been?" Sango admonished him when he entered the room. She was wrapping Kagome up tightly in a blanket, "Kagome has a fever, it's getting bad and we have to get her to a healer. We can't leave Kagome here, the family is scared of her, and they don't know where we can find a miko. It appears we'll have to go back to village where we met Mary Jane and ask that miko you talked to for help." Sango finished tucking Kagome in and turned to InuYahsa, "What are you standing there for? You have to carry Kagome to Kirara."  
  
"Where is everyone else?" As InuYahsa jumped forward to pick Kagome up, he took a quick look at her face. 'From too little color to too much, can't she do anything right?' he thought darkly.  
  
"Miroku, Shippo and Kirara are with the family, preparing for the journey outside. You didn't see them?" Sango fixed her hiraikotsu to her back.  
  
"I wasn't paying-"  
  
"Let's go!" Sango ran out ahead of him.  
  
InuYahsa ran on the ground while the others rode on Kirara with Kagome. Moving at top speed it was still the next afternoon before they reached the village and found the unfriendly miko.  
  
"What are you doing here." She frowned at them annoyed that the foolish hanyou had returned to her village, "Youkai aren't welcome here."  
  
"Our friend is sick." Miroku approached the miko, holding Kagome, "You are the nearest miko we know of."  
  
The girl looked at Kagome's face and frowned, "Strange. Put her down."  
  
"She has a fever." Shippo stated from Sangos' shoulder.  
  
"What... is she?"  
  
"She's a... a miko." Sango answered, uncertainly.  
  
The miko knelt over Kagome, feeling her out, "This fever is being caused by the conflicts of the two energys present within her."  
  
"So?" InuYahsa spoke for the first time, impatient with the lack of progress, "Help her."  
  
"I can only help her by neutralizing one of the energies." The miko stood and addressed InuYahsa, "but I'm not sure which one to neutralize. If she is a miko under a spell, she is changed, and I would help her. But if she is changed too much assisting the miko energy would harm her. I am unwilling to do that. I suggest letting things take their course. Now leave, you're upsetting the villagers."  
  
A/N: You realize that I KILLED Kagome and only got three reviews? I figured I'd get at least five. Sigh. Ok I'm over that now. Thank you all for reviewing, I don't mean to sound ungrateful.  
  
For those who know about this stuff, about Kagome being cold and blue; Kagome hadn't exactly warmed up from being soaked in the last chapter and a little more time had passed between her death and the tray getting knocked over then it sounded like in the last chapter. The blue lips were actually because of the poison, as was the violent twitching., her heart stopping and her no longer breathing and getting cold, losing color were basicily the only signs of her death. I know that other stuff happens before rigor mortis but she didn't die all the way and Shippo just grabbed a hold of the biggest sign he could think of.  
  
Still want feedback, do you like it, what do you think is happening, etc. review please. 


	10. Sleeping Cutie Awakes

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.  
  
Chapter 10: Sleeping Cutie Awakes  
  
Kagome drifted slowly up from the cool, comfortable darkness she had been hiding in. First she noticed how sore her body was, sore and tingly. She had obviously been laying in one position for too long, but she lacked the energy to move.  
  
It was warm where she was, and dark, and it smelled strongly, but not unpleasantly, of sweat and herbs. Slowly she opened her eyes a crack to see her surroundings. She saw the dark roof of a hut above her. That wasn't so helpful, so, with great effort, she rolled her head toward the source of light. It was a pile of coals in the fire place in the middle of the room that were glowing dimly. She could clearly see medicines, herbs and containers organized in a vaguely familiar way along the far wall. Thick cloths were pinned over the windows of the room not letting any of the sunlight, that she knew was shining outside, inside. Why would someone do that?  
  
Kagome frowned, and blinked at the labels on the jars, they weren't lit, exactly, yet she could read them easily. The room was nearly pitch black but she could tell the difference in the dark aged wood and the dark course cloth pinned to it on the opposite wall. Weird.  
  
'I'm at Keades'?' she thought as she finally managed to sit up, 'I'm alive? How did I get here? Wasn't I supposed to...' she never had a chance to finish that thought.  
  
"Kagome!" Shippo whispered excitedly, he didn't want to alert the others yet. This was his time. He ran over to her on all fours and sat patiently waiting for her to notice him.  
  
Kagome put one hand to her forehead, she didn't feel quite real, "Shippo?"  
  
"I told them you would be alright." He stated happily, and quietly, "Alright so it was because of a dream but I knew! And here you are!" he bounced.  
  
"Shippo, what happened?" Kagome asked, lowering her hand, "Why are you whispering, why..." Kagome stopped talking when she noticed the hand in her lap. It looked like her hand, and no one else was in the room. But this hand had short delicate points on the end.  
  
Kagome raised her hand until it was only a few inches from her face and examined her nails. They were only slightly longer then she usually kept them, they were still pink and white, but now they were a little stronger looking. And pointed. Small strong triangles had taken over the gentle curve at the end of her nail. They weren't even nails anymore, they were claws. Very delicate and almost understated, but still claws.  
  
Her heart sped up and she felt dizzy, confusion and fear descended on her heart and mind. Her hair moved on her head as she noticed Shippo was talking again. Terrified, Kagome moved her clawed hands to the side of her head, but Shippo's words managed to reach her before she reached her destination.  
  
"-really my sister now!" he pounced happily on her knee with his hands.  
  
"S-sister." Kagome blinked down at him and lowered her hands.  
  
"Yeah, weren't you listening?" Shippo tilted his head slightly in disapproval before explaining again, "The ladies took your body apart and rewove it using my body as a pattern. Just like clothes! That's why I had the dream, they were asking my permission. I guess I gave it 'cause here you are!"  
  
"I'm you sister now?" Kagome asked dazedly, how could she be his sister?  
  
"Well, half sister." Shippo admitted with some embarrassment, "But that's just as good!"  
  
"So, I'm a..." Kagome looked from Shippo back to her hands.  
  
"A kitsune, a-a hanyou." Shippo corrected himself, "A kitsune hanyou! It's wonderful Kagome! I promise to teach you all about being a kitsune. You'll have lots of fun and you'll live so much longer! Uh, not that that matters, it's not like I thought about how long you'd live before or anything." a blush started to rise on his cheeks and he couldn't seem to stop talking, and talking wasn't making it better for him.  
  
The growing panic in Kagome was pushed back in her foggy mind by Shippos' words and antics, and she found herself smiling at the kit.  
  
"Shippo, it's ok." She held out her hands to hug him and he jumped into her arms, 'Does he really worry about my... life span?' she wondered.  
  
"I can show you some stuff now." Shippo jumped back, "We can go play in the forest!"  
  
"Later Shippo," Kagome yawned, "I'm tired and fuzzy. I can barely move."  
  
"I guess being reborn as a hanyou is hard work huh?" Shippo watched as Kagome sank back down onto the futon, curling up in a loose ball on her side. "You sleep here Ok? I'll get the others and be right back."  
  
Shippo pulled the sheet that had fallen when Kagome sat up back around her shoulders and left quietly so as not to wake her.

TTTTTT

Kagome woke quickly to the sound of raised voices outside.  
  
"You weren't supposed to leave her alone!"  
  
InuYasha sounded angry, Kagome frowned, 'I was just sleeping.'  
  
"She's sleeping." Shippo sounded annoyed, "She's ok with it, really."  
  
"Shippo," Miroku calm as ever, "Kagome is in a delicate condition, we want to give her time to get used to her transformation and we need to be there to support her."  
  
"And make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." InuYasha growled.  
  
'They think I tried to kill myself!' Kagome sat up and glared at the door, 'well, I kinda did. After all, I didn't know when I drank to rebirth that it meant this life.'  
  
"Kagome?" InuYasha was standing in the now open door.  
  
Kagome dove back down and pretended to be asleep.  
  
InuYasha rolled his eyes, "I saw you Kagome, I know you're awake." He walked over and knelt by her head, "Get up."  
  
She really didn't want to talk to him. Might lock her in a cabin or something.... "I'm asleep, go away." She replied curtly.  
  
InuYasha growled.  
  
"InuYasha leave her alone," Sango knelt near Kagome's stomach, "she's had a hard day."  
  
"That's her own fault. Get up!" InuYasha ordered gruffly.  
  
"InuYasha, you must coax a young vixen out of her den gently, Not frighten her." Miroku said from her feet.  
  
'Vixen?' Kagome's eyes popped open "Vixen!" Kagome sat up and jumped to rest on her hands and knees, only inches from Miroku, "Who are you calling a vixen?"  
  
"... That's what you are now Kagome." Miroku sat back on his heels.  
  
"But..."  
  
"He's right Kagome." Shippo said from his shoulder, "You're a female fox you-hanyou, so... a vixen."  
  
Kagome sat back on her heels, 'Damn.'  
  
"Kitsune." InuYasha spat, "Why did it have to be a fucking kitsune!"  
  
Kagome gave him a flat look, "You don't like Kitsune's?" she asked dryly.  
  
"No! Ye... Damn it!" InuYasha growled, "That's not.... Come here."  
  
Kagome hesitated and looked at Sango, who nodded, before she crawled to the head of her futon.  
  
InuYasha looked her over from her knees to the top of her head, suddenly reminding Kagome about her earlier worries. Kagome raised her hands to her head to the side of her head where her ears should be. No ears. She could feel the panic start to rise in her again.  
  
"Kagome," InuYasha took her hands from her head and held them in her lap, "don't."  
  
Kagome looked at him with wide eyes. His eyes seemed to glow, even though his back was to the coals. Did her eyes glow?  
  
InuYasha looked into her frightened eyes, they reflected the light beautifully, even though she was in his shadow... if the coals had been bright enough to cast a shadow. InuYasha leaned forward slightly and sniffed at her discreetly.  
  
First Kagome backed up, it was just too weird. But curiosity got the better of her and she leaned in and took a slight sniff near InuYasha's cheek. At first she just smelled InuYasha, then there was this rush of fragrances, emotions and sparkling electricity that shot through her mind and body as she continued to inhale his scent. His scent was music with all the notes sounding at once, a book that told its' tale in a rush of nonsense. It told of woods and fire, storms and running rivers, it sang of running in at night, in the rain and for the joy of it. It told of bloody battles, tears and frustration. Lots of frustration. And promise. It screamed of promise, she didn't understand, but it brought to mind dark forests, full moons, soft forest floors and sweat. It made her head spin, but she wanted to understand. She could almost smell the ancient fire rats on the cloth on his shoulder when she lowered her head to sniff at his neck.  
  
InuYasha moved slowly, being more knowledgeable about this, he took short sharp sniffs and leaned in to scent her hair. She was still Kagome, still sweet and gentle, with a uniquely passionate undercurrent that sometimes bordered on violent. She was still spring time blossoms, gentle breezes and playful brooks. Only now she hinted at early summer storms and the fire on her scent threatened to break away from the safety of the hearth and catch the whole forest in its heat. And there was the promise still. the promise of hearth, warmth and acceptance, only now that promise was stronger and also spoke of full moons and wild chases.  
  
They reveled in each others scent enraptured by, and enwrapped in the other. Close enough to feel the others heat, but never touching.  
  
"Should we leave you two alone?" Miroku watching the shadowy figures of his friend jump, InuYasha straightened immediately, Kagome settled back slowly.  
  
"Houshi-sama!" Sango warned.  
  
"They were just saying hello." Shippo shrugged, "Do me next Kagome!" Shippo bounced up to her, but InuYasha grabbed his tail held him away from the vixen, "Hey!"  
  
"No one's going next." InuYasha stated as he dropped Shippo next to him, "She... needs time."  
  
"Kagome does look tired." Sango looked at Kagome's shadow as she weaved in place.  
  
"I'm, that was..." Kagome blinked, she couldn't make much sense out of what had happened.  
  
"Can we at least take the bags off the windows? It's too dark in here." Shippo pouted.  
  
Sango and Miroku nodded and stood to retrieve the bags and let light into the hut.  
  
"Why were they there?" Kagome asked of the bags.  
  
"Keade wasn't sure how sensitive your eyes would be." Shippo answered, "She was worried about the fever."  
  
"I had a fever?" Kagome asked him as she crawled for her bag, she had a vague sense that something was different in the way she moved, but she couldn't put her finger on it and decided it could wait.  
  
"Yeah, you kinda died Kagome." Shippo followed her, "We were all really worried. Then you got better, then you got a fever, and we ran to one miko that told us to leave and we came to Keade's because she knows you and the girl that poisoned you told InuYasha to seek his kitsunes sister, but I don't have a sister unless you count you now. What'cha doin'?"  
  
Kagome was digging through her pack as she kneeled before it, "Looking for my mirror."  
  
"You're really pretty Kagome." Shippo assured her.  
  
"Thanks." Kagome said distractedly, the light was now pouring in from the windows and she now had her mirror in her hand. She raised her hand with trepidation, and turned her mirror so that she could see her reflection. Her face was similar, some slight changes that she couldn't quite pinpoint, but it was still her face. Her black hair still framed her face in mild, wild waves. Only it seemed wilder and more black, like light just fell into it, and it was much softer. She opened her mouth a little and revealed delicate fangs that only protruded from the line of her teeth enough to be noticeable. She couldn't see any ears. The sides of her head were similar to InuYasha. She had expected that though. Before she moved the mirror to see the ears that must be perched on the top of her head, she paused to look at the most marked difference in her face. Her eyes.  
  
They seemed to be larger, but she wasn't sure about that. Her rich dark brown irises were the same as always, but the starburst within them had changed, now they were the color of a tiger eye gem, or dark honey, and surrounded a slitted pupil.  
  
Kagome blinked, 'Scarred. Well, it's better than green,' She thought in a daze, 'and it complements the brown. It's just a shade or two darker than InuYasha's.' "Kagome?" Sango's voice made her turn her head and shoulders to the others, "Your eyes... They're nice" she reassured her nervously.  
  
"We hadn't seen them before Kagome." Shippo tottered on his fox feet trying to get a good angle.  
  
Kagome turned quickly so that she was sitting with her legs out in front of her, then sighed in relief when she saw that they were still human. But a slight tugging sensation drew her attention behind her once again.  
  
"I have a tail, don't I." Kagome said flatly.  
  
"It's really pretty Kagome!" Shippo jumped on her lap, "It's black with a white tip, of course, and it's so soft!"  
  
Kagome gave him a crooked smile, her head was spinning with all the changes to her physical form. She needed a break before she could see what else had changed.  
  
"Why did it have to be a fucking kitsune?" InuYasha mumbled.

TTTTTTTT

Kagome sat just outside Keades' hut, her tail wrapped around her waist with the tip thumping against the opposite thigh. When she stood her tail reached just below her knee and made sitting and laying a little difficult. she was looking around at the people and buildings and trees. Everything seemed to emit a sort of light on its own adding to the light cast by the sun. It made everything so much clearer but she almost had to squint to avoid hurting her eyes, which blurred everything a bit.  
  
"Are you alright Kagome?" Miroku settled down next to her.  
  
"I think my eyes work differently now." She squinted up at him, living things seemed to give off the most light, 'I wonder if InuYasha sees like this?'  
  
"Kagome..." Miroku paused as one of her ears twitched in the direction of a sudden noise, "Kagome I..."  
  
"You've been sent to find out what happened?" Kagome smiled at him, "I was dying Miroku, but it was worst than that, because I wasn't going to die. I didn't like who or what I was becoming. I couldn't stand living as a succubus for hundreds of years. I was saying things I don't say, and thinking things I don't think, and worse, the times that I realized that it wasn't me, that I didn't like what I was becoming were coming less and less often. I didn't want to lose you guys as my friends. I didn't want to lose myself either. So when I was given the chance I chose rebirth. I could have chosen oblivion and been done with the jewel once and for all. But I couldn't do that. But, the truth is, when I chose rebirth, I didn't know she meant this life. I didn't really think about it, but I kind of figured I'd get reborn, maybe fall down the well again and meet you all next life or something."  
  
"I see." Miroku looked down thoughtfully.  
  
"I didn't see it as killing myself," Kagome felt she needed to explain herself more, "what I was becoming was horrid and vile and would have lasted for centuries. I was losing myself and my ability to sense and purify the jewel, and I nothing I could do would stop it."  
  
"Are you prepared to deal with this form?" Miroku asked somberly.  
  
"Being a kitsune hanyou?" Kagome looked straight ahead at nothing, "Sure." She shrugged, "I accepted rebirth and put my trust in the powers that be. If this is how I have to pay for my weakness with Sorrell then so be it. I already feel more like my old self." She laughed, "Actually I feel like I'm just getting over a long illness and spent too much time in bed. I have all this new energy and my head's too light to use it without falling down."  
  
"I'm still a miko." She added quietly.  
  
Miroku looked at her profile for a moment, "Are you sure? We haven't been able to sense either energy since your fever."  
  
Kagome nodded, "There wouldn't have been any point otherwise. I chose to continue the quest, I wouldn't... be needed, as a youkia."  
  
Around the corner of the hut InuYasha, Sango and Shippo leaned in, listening.  
  
"I told you she wasn't leaving us." Shippo whispered.

TTTTT  
  
"Ta-da!" Kagome held up herself in victory. She was standing under the god tree with Shippo a few days later, practicing kitsune magic. Shippo was watching from few feet away on a tall root, safe from the powerful miko aura that Kagome hadn't learned to control during her practice. Currently Kagome was practicing shape shifting. She was trying to look like her self. Her old, human self.  
  
"That's great Kagome!" Shippo grinned madly, he wanted to run up and hug her, but feared purification, "You even hid your tail this time! You must be really powerful!"  
  
"But what about my complexion?" Kagome looked down at her hands, normal human hands with normal human nails. The day after her discussion with Miroku, Kagome had made a full recovery and her skin had evened out and gotten paler, even getting an almost pearlescent quality.  
  
It had really bugged her.  
  
Her complexion hadn't been bad, why did it have to change so much? But now her hands had a more normal hue, still annoyingly perfect, but normal. The perfect problem was hard to overcome, and a perfect illusion, according to Shippo, was imperfect. Not that he could manage it either.  
  
Still, it seemed like she should be able copy herself exactly.  
  
"You're fine Kagome." Shippo rolled his eyes, "You want to try producing multiples again?"  
  
"Ugh, not yet Shippo." Kagome popped back to her kitsune form, "that makes me dizzy."  
  
Shippo nodded sagely. It was difficult to handle all the different views many pairs of eyes would feed back to you. He had thought of that trick first because it was one of the first defenses taught to kits. Maybe Kagome needed more time to get used to being a kitsune. Or her being a hanyou weakened her magic or mind.... Shippo shook his head, Kagome wasn't weak and her mind was, well he didn't understand the female mind anyway, but Kagome was powerful. She had hid her tail, after all.  
  
Kagome sighed, "I think I'm done with illusions for the day."  
  
"Alright." Shippo jumped down from his perch and walked up to her, now that her aura was back to normal, "we'll break for lunch, then we'll work on plant magic. Let's go see what Keade has on the fire."  
  
Kagome groaned, Shippo was a slave driver, "How about you go ahead to Keades' and I'll be along in a while." She smiled innocently.  
  
"InuYasha doesn't want you wandering around alone until you're more used to your new body." Shippo purst his lips importantly, "He told me to keep an eye on you."  
  
"Well, at least someone's looking at me." Kagome sighed.  
  
"It... it's just a shock. That's all." Shippo patted her shin comfortingly, "You may be my sister, but it will take them time to get used to the new you."  
  
Kagome smiled down at Shippo, "Time." She agreed sadly, "I just want to take a walk by the well. I'm not going home yet so don't give me that look, I just want to see it again. What could happen between the well and Keades'?"  
  
Shippo gave her an unconvinced look, but finally relented, "Ok, but only if you promise to study extra hard this afternoon."

TTTTTTTT  
  
A/N: Perhaps a little, well... overdone, but I had to get her out of that situation somehow. And I have some really good ideas for this story so bare with me. It is a fun story right? Please review.


	11. Another Kitsune

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.  
  
Chapter 11: Another Kitsune  
  
Kagome paused at the edge of the brightly lit clearing that held the well. Her sensitive eyes darted to the shadows around the edges and her ears rotated gathering information that she hadn't learned how to decipher.  
  
She forced her nerves to relax. She had taken this walk hundreds of times; there was no reason for her to be nervous this time. Though it was her first time since she had changed.  
  
Hesitantly she crept up to the well, then knelt to rest her arms on the well's lip and gaze into the darkness.  
  
'How am I going to explain this?' Kagome thought, 'An accident? Hmm.... Will the well even work for me now? Oh, Mama, what am I going to do? My eyes are nicer, but I have claws and fangs. They're not too noticeable, but... my ears...' "I can't believe my ears are bigger then InuYasha's!" Kagome groaned and let her head fall onto her arms.  
  
"I think they make you look even cuter." A strange male voice said from a few feet behind her.  
  
Kagome spun around so fast that she ended up leaning on the well, supporting her weight with her hands on the lip behind her. She squinted against the light to see the intruder.  
  
Before her stood a tall handsome man in his early twenties with one hand on his waist and the other hanging loosely at his side in a pose of casual pride and amusement. He wore blue hakama and a blue jacket with a red and cream patterned shirt underneath. But what concerned Kagome was his pointed ears and slitted eyes, proof that he was a youkai. She was somewhat calmed, though she wasn't sure why, by the sight of his shocking red hair and fluffy red tail that marked him as a kitsune. His eyes were a similar color to that of the starburst in hers, and they were laughing at her.  
  
"Wow," he said crossing his arms, "you're even cuter up close."  
  
All fear left Kagome in a rush on annoyance, "I'm not cute." She stated indignantly as she stood.  
  
"Ok." The kitsune agreed in an unconvincing manner, "But there is nothing wrong with being cute, Kagome. You are still fairly young. You were what, 16, 17?"  
  
"I'll be 16 this fall." Kagome corrected him, "How do you know my name?"  
  
"I am a wise and powerful kitsune." He said importantly, "but mostly this is my territory and I have watched your group from a distance for a while. I am Akira"  
  
"You watched us?" Kagome asked suspiciously.  
  
"In my youth I decided to be a friend to humans, so I have to get my entertainment somewhere."  
  
Kagome shook her head, "Isn't this InuYasha's territory?"  
  
"No," He answered stepping closer to her, "This is InuYasha's land. It's kind of complicated. I'd be happy to explain it to you later, but now I want to know about this." He made a motion that indicated all of Kagome.  
  
"I'm not really sure," Kagome said sitting down on the lip of the well, "Shippo said three ladies rewove my body using his as a sort of pattern."  
  
Akira nodded, this bore thinking. "But you're the same Kagome, the same human miko?"  
  
Kagome nodded, "But now I'm a kitsune hanyou miko... weird."  
  
"And only a little impossible." Akira sat next to Kagome, "You know, the kit can only show you so much. He doesn't know much plant magic. I could teach you more."  
  
Kagome squinted up at him suspiciously, "What are you suggesting?"  
  
"Nothing yet." Akira smiled, "But once you learn to control your aura, and Shippo is finished with you, we'll talk."  
  
"InuYasha has forbidden me from making deals with strange youkai." Kagome stated offhandedly, "Actually, he's forbidden me from talking to strange youkai, and after what happened last time I'm listening to him. For now."  
  
"A wise policy." Akira agreed, "But perhaps he'll change his mind in my case. I am a kitsune Kagome. Kitsune hanyou's are, well, non existant. But I am a kitsune. I have some idea what you're in for."  
  
"... What am I in for?" Kagome asked hesitantly.  
  
"Let's talk about that later, first I want to get a good look at you." Akira leaned forward, toward Kagome.  
  
Kagome leaned back, "What are you doing?"  
  
"I want to see how old you are." He smirked, "For a kitsune. Let me look into your eyes."  
  
Kagome straightened up and looked at him suspiciously, but she let him guide her head with one hand so he could see her eyes better. "Mmmm, pretty." He laughed when Kagome rolled her eyes, "stop that... no, you'll have to look down for me."  
  
At this precise moment, with Akira holding Kagome's chin lightly as he gazed into her eyes, InuYasha entered the clearing.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" InuYasha growled at the kitsune male.  
  
Akira released Kagome and stood slowly. No need to startle him. "It's not what it looks like."  
  
"I don't care." InuYasha moved forward quickly to stand in front of Akira, who was slightly taller than him, "You're not allowed around my... friends."  
  
"But she's a kitsune now." Akira took a step away from both him and Kagome, "That changes the rules. Ask Myouga if you don't believe me."  
  
InuYasha paused, he'd have to talk to Myouga later, "What were you doing?" He asked Kagome, "You're not supposed to talk to any youkai you don't know and you don't know him!"  
  
"Who is he?" Kagome asked innocently, she tilted her head and perked up her ears unconsciously while she opened her eyes wide.  
  
"Cut that out!" InuYasha yelled at her, "He's none of your business."  
  
"That's not entirely true." Akira spoke again, despite his better judgment.  
  
"What did I do?" Kagome's brow knitted slightly and protruded slightly.  
  
"Stop that!" InuYasha yelled again.  
  
"What?" Kagome leaned back, completely confused.  
  
"You mean you don't know?" Akira asked calmly.  
  
Kagome shook her head slightly causing her hair to puff out and swing prettily before it settled around her slightly confused, somewhat upset face.  
  
"Oh." Akira started to chuckle, then he laughed. He turned to InuYasha, "You-you're in for a lot of trouble."  
  
"What am I doing?" Kagome was getting upset. She could feel her tail jerking from side to side behind her. It was strange enough a sensation that she forgot to be mad.  
  
"That's not important right now." Akira answered after he recovered.  
  
"What were you doing to her?" InuYasha asked again.  
  
"I was ageing her." Akira answered, "The rays of the honey color that reach the edge of her iris show a slight ring of blue would be there if her eyes were normal."  
  
InuYasha walked up to Kagome, who was still sitting on the well, half turned to look at her swishing tail, "Kagome." He said.  
  
Kagome turned back to look at him. He put his hands on either side of her and leaned in close to look at her eyes. Kagome leaned back a little.  
  
"So?" InuYasha asked, still looking, "She's got some blue in her eyes. So what?"  
  
The kitsune shrugged, "I was only trying to see how old she was. Now I know."  
  
"How old am I?" Kagome asked, pushing InuYasha back to a less intrusive distance, "And what does that mean?"  
  
"Mid adolescent." Akira answered, "You won't be truly physically mature for a few years, after the blue is gone. But I'm not sure when because you're a hanyou."  
  
"Why does that matter?" Kagome asked tilting her head in a look of innocent curiosity, "How old I am, I mean."  
  
"... Just curious." Akira answered, "Kagome asked me to help her understand being a kitsune."  
  
"Like hell you will." InuYasha growled lowly.  
  
"Can you help her? Do you know what to expect from an adolescent kitsune? I'd be helping you too." Akira folded his arms and leaned back on one foot in a mixed posture of arrogance and preparedness to flee, "You're not even sure what it means to be an inu hanyou."  
  
"I know more then you'd think." InuYasha growled and started to advance on him.  
  
"But Kagome doesn't have the luxury of a retainer like you do, InuYasha." Akira warned, "Kagome has an orphaned child. How much does a child Shippo's age know about the world, let alone the world of youkai?"  
  
InuYasha didn't even flinch at the reference to his own youth.  
  
"InuYasha." Kagome's concerned voice floated lightly from her seat on the well. "Please, don't fight. He didn't do anything and I have some questions."  
  
InuYasha stopped, and turned to Kagome. She was giving him a big eyed sad look and her eyes were all glittery. Kagome never made that face and she was too damn good at it already, "Tomorrow, this time, by the God Tree. All of us will be there."  
  
Akira nodded and backed away a few steps before he turned and headed into the woods.  
  
"I told you not to talk to any strange youkai!" InuYasha turned back to Kagome, "And don't give me that look. It freaks me out."  
  
Kagome tried to understand what look she was giving him that would freak him out, but gave up, "I didn't talk to him, he talked to me. Besides, he said that this was his territory. Is that true?"  
  
"Yeah," InuYasha frowned, "but that's no excuse."  
  
Kagome stood up and dipped her head, then looked up at him remorsefully, a slightly worried look on her pouting face, "I'm sorry, I'm not thinking right lately. Don't be mad InuYasha, please." She said as she walked up to him.  
  
"Cut that out!" InuYasha scowled.  
  
"Cut what out?" Now she was upset. What was she doing? "He was just talking to me. What was I supposed to do? Scream and run back to the village?"  
  
"Yes!" InuYasha yelled back at her.  
  
"He wasn't doing anything!" Kagome yelled back, "Besides he says this is his territory! So there!"  
  
InuYasha closed his mouth with a snap. Yeah, the kitsune's territory went all the way to the god tree, that's why he chose that place to meet tomorrow, "So? You still don't know him."  
  
"I know him now." Kagome crossed her arms and walked crisply past InuYasha toward the village.  
  
"No you don't!" InuYasha stomped after her.  
  
"Yes I do." Kagome didn't even turn her head toward him, "We had a nice conversation."  
  
"No you don't!" InuYasha yelled, "That doesn't count. He's a dangerous youkai!"  
  
"He's not dangerous." Kagome snipped, "He's nice and harmless, and he just wants to help me!"  
  
"That's what you thought about Sorrell." InuYasha grumbled.  
  
Kagome stiffened for a second, then took off at a run to Keades.  
  
InuYasha blinked at the spot she had been standing. She was a lot faster now. He would have run after her, to see how fast she was, but he still had thinking to do.  
  
He had sorted out his thoughts on his... relationships, mostly. Sorrell had set him straight on some aspects of his relationship with Kagome, and Kagome had told him the rest. He couldn't quite believe all of what she said, but she must have. He had chosen Kikyo, but not... not the way that everyone thought. He pursued Kagome, but he tried not to. He just wanted to be close to her while she was still here. He tried to keep others away from her, true, but some day he might be able to pursue her properly. Probably not.  
  
But the nature of love is what was bothering him most. Both Kikyo and Kagome were amazed that he still cared for them after their transformations. But what did that have anything to do with it? When you cared for someone their form shouldn't matter.  
  
Especially when it was temporary. Eventually Naraku would be dead and the jewel would be dealt with, then Kikyo would find peace, one way or another, and she would be herself again. There had still been hope that Kagome would return to normal or that Myouga would find some way to help her.  
  
But none of that should matter either, when you cared about someone. When you cared for someone, you didn't let them push you away. Kagome had shown him that.  
  
But the nature of love... how far did it go? How different can someone get and your love remain? If they changed completely, became an entirely different person, did you still love them? If you did, what did you love? Their form? Their spirit? Their soul? How did you know what you loved? If you stood by someone that was completely different from the one you started to care about, was that love? Love of what?  
  
The only thing that he could be sure of now was that his feelings for Kagome, the ones he couldn't look at straight just yet, weren't based on Kikyo. Long ago he learned the uniqueness of her form, and from the beginning he recognized the difference in her scent. Even if it would always remind him of Kikyo, just a little. He could never mistake them. But now there was even less of Kikyo in her form and scent. Less Kagome too. She wasn't that different, just little things, down to the way she walked. Was she still the person he... cared for? She seemed to be, but she wasn't finished yet. Who would she turn out to be? He didn't want to lose Kagome. Not even to herself.  
  
A/N: InuYasha kinda binge thinks, and saves it all up for when he can be alone.

RedHerring, thanks for the advise, lets see....1. don't worry, I'm well versed in dog language.  
2. I hate that phraze too, although I have seen it use well once.  
3. I know what you mean, That bothers me too. But Kagome hasn't mad a big deal about the kiss, in all her rantings against InuYasha, so I don't think she's going to bring it up now.  
4. Kouga was in this story already and I don't think I made him the bad guy then... I did however give him claws, oops.  
5. I don't think InuYasha is stupid eighter, but more on that latter in the actual storie.  
Keep reading and making suggestions, I hope your still writing too. If you are I'll check out your stories. you write well.


	12. Getting To Know You

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.  
  
A/N: latter on in this chapter Akria is comparing Kagome's Kitsune biological age with human biological age, remember that this is the feudal ages and if he were talking to us he would say that she was 15 or 16 instead.  
  
Chapter 12: Getting To Know You  
  
Kagome yawned and stretched against the tree she was sitting under. It was almost time for Akira to meet them, InuYasha was sitting under the godtree, looking unapproachable and Kagome was trying not to fade off to sleep or chase after the butterfly that did insist on fluttering around InuYasha's left ear. InuYasha, and his ear, were perfectly unaware of the great danger the butterfly presented...  
  
---  
  
"So... This is your territory, but InuYasha's land." Miroku restated. Sango, Kirara and him had been heading back to the village after a short journey to neighboring villages in the south when they met up with Akira and Shippo in InuYasha's forest. Though they didn't think that Kohaku would end up there, they had decided to spread the word that they were looking for Sango's younger brother, just in case. And so that they were doing something while Kagome learned how to better use her new form.  
  
"Right," Akira nodded, "Inu's have land, it is considered that they own it and the people and animals and trees and stuff on it. They protect it fiercely. Kitsunes don't care as much, our territory, where we hunt and play, is looser and generally over laps with other kitsunes and similarly minded youkai. We may have a village under our protection, but nothing as serious as the Inu's. But Inu's are much rarer then are we are. But Kitsunes are not in the service of anyone."  
  
"...I can see how you would have difficulty with InuYasha after he walked in on you gazing into Kagome's eyes." Sango thought out loud, "Why did you do that? What's so important about Kagome's biological age?"  
  
"Well, there are many factors that you may not under-"Akira started to answer in a broad sweeping way but was interrupted by Miroku.  
  
"She's off limits." He stated sagely.  
  
"Uh, yes, that too." Akira said defeated, Shippo snorted, "If I were to compare her to a human, she would be 12 or 13. A young 13. She wouldn't even have had her first heat yet. While it is accepted that kitsunes of the same age may explore that part of life, it wouldn't be right for an older kitsune to take advantage of their naiveté."  
  
"So you approached Kagome to see... Agh." Sango turned her head away to show her distain for all things male.  
  
"Hey, she's cute." Akira defended, "It would be easier to teach her if ... And there are other reasons. It's a whole different set of problems for her to face."  
  
"Excuse me," Miroku slid into the conversation, "Did you say "heat"?"  
  
"Yeah, it's not that bad." Akira waved the subject off, "I would prefer to talk to Kagome about that alone."  
  
"That's not going to happen." Shippo folded his arms in a very InuYasha way, "No way is InuYasha going to leave you alone with Kagome."  
  
Akira shook his head, "It will be a while before we have to worry about it anyway. Maybe I can find someone else to do it. Maybe a female."  
  
---  
  
Kagome watched forlornly as her butterfly tormentor fluttered away into the canopy above. Now what would she do?  
  
Kagome looked across at InuYasha. How does he sit so still? There was so much going on, so many things they could be doing, and none of them were here! Kagome let out a breath of frustration and scratched absently at her hand.  
  
"Ow!" she yipped. Kagome put the undamaged hand over her mouth in surprise, she had yipped! Like a, a, dog or something!  
  
She looked over at InuYasha peevishly, was he smiling? Kagome huffed, in a far too dog like way, and looked at her wounded hand. She was bleeding a little bit; she had forgotten that her claws were so sharp. Without thinking Kagome lifted it up and licked the wound.  
  
InuYasha was trying very hard not to laugh, so far he had heard Kagome yip, snort and huff like a canine. All were far too cute coming from Kagome, but he doubted she would want to hear that. Not that he thought of telling her. He was too busy trying not to laugh.  
  
A sudden gasp from Kagome made him open his eyes a little.  
  
Kagome was looking at her tongue. She couldn't believe she could actually see it without a mirror! It was at least two inches longer! And, maybe a little thinner? It was hard to tell, she had never seen it from this perspective before.  
  
She heard InuYasha give a chuckle and looked up. He was grinning at her. Suddenly he parted his lips and stuck his out tongue. All the way out. It was at least as long as hers and maybe a little thicker.  
  
Kagome pulled her tongue back in and started to crawl toward InuYasha. Her curiosity had been piqued.  
  
---  
  
"How is that possible?" Sango shook her head in confusion.  
  
"I'm not sure," Akira put his hand to his chin thoughtfully, "But my sources say that that is the way it is. In most ways Kagome is an adolescent hanyou, but in others Kagome is a near infant of a kitsune. It will take a while for her to catch up to herself, mentally. Personally I think it will be good for InuYasha as well."  
  
"How so?" Miroku asked, this was getting more complicated by the minute.  
  
"Well, InuYasha was very young when he was cast out of youkai society, and humans probably didn't want to trust him with their young." Akira said, "He didn't get to do those things that young youkai do. There was never anyone around him that looked like him or could play those youkai games with him. I've always thought some of his problems stemmed from that. Kagome will need to go through the same games that InuYasha missed out on in order to progress in a healthy manner. Their ages and ... relationship will make things interesting, but I think InuYasha should be the one to play those games with her. I think it might help fill in parts of his mind too."  
  
"But I wanted to play with Kagome!" Shippo spoke up emphatically.  
  
"If Kagome was the same size as you are, I'd agree." Akira said to Shippo, not unkindly, "But how long will it take for Kagome to out strip you in a chase, or lose you in a hunt?"  
  
"Ok fine." Shippo pouted, then looked up at Akira, "You're not going to let InuYasha chase Kagome are you?"  
  
"I was going to suggest Kagome chase InuYasha." Akira winked at Shippo.  
  
"Good," Shippo nodded, "I want my sister to my self for a while."  
  
---  
  
InuYasha pulled his tongue back into his mouth as Kagome crawled towards him slowly. Kagome frowned when he did that, but continued crawling until she was right in front of him with her knees touching his shins.  
  
She put her hands flat on her thighs while she looked up at him, her head slightly tilted. There had to be more to do here than look at InuYasha's tongue.  
  
InuYasha looked blankly back at her. He had no idea what she was doing and that made him nervous. But he refused to show it.  
  
Kagome saw InuYasha's ears twitch nervously. She wondered what her ears felt like. Slowly she raised one hand to the top of the side of her head and ran her fingers over the tip of her ear. It shivered and twitched. Kagome giggled, THAT was a strange sensation, but not entirely unpleasant. Next she held the furry appendage between her fingers and ruffled the fur before smoothing it out again.  
  
InuYasha watched Kagome feeling her ear and his fingers twitched. He wanted to feel her ears. He had never felt another beings ears before, as weird as that sounded, and he really wanted to feel Kagomes'.  
  
Kagome looked InuYasha in the eye and she removed her hand from her ear and slowly moved it over to his. She let it hover over his ear while InuYasha slowly lifted his hand to hers.  
  
InuYasha carefully closed his fingers over the fuzzy bit of flesh. It was thinner then his ear, more fragile, and hotter, probably because her fur was thinner over her ears than his were. And her fur was so soft.  
  
It was a new sensation from a new appendage, but it didn't really feel one way or the other. If anything it just made her nervous. InuYasha's ear was as she remembered, though now she felt that his fur was somewhat courser than hers.  
  
What about their claws?  
  
Kagome let go of his ear and grabbed his hand, which was working his way slowly down her ear toward the base and making her more nervous. She brought his hand down until it was just a few inches in front of her face. She held his hand so that his palm was toward her and she put her palm against his.  
  
His claws were longer and thicker than hers, but duller. 'How does he manage to slice things so easily with them?' she wondered as she compared his claws to her own.  
  
InuYasha turned his hand a little to look at Kagome's dainty little claws, they were so small and delicate looking. Everything about her seemed so ... delicate. The world was so unforgiving, he didn't want to find out if she was still tougher than she looked. He wanted to protect her, from everything.  
  
Kagome lowered their hands when she saw him looking at her instead of her hand. She looked at his mouth; again she was wondered whose tongue was longer. She stuck out her tongue, just a little as she wondered.  
  
InuYasha watched Kagome stick out her tongue and unconsciously allowed his to protrude from his mouth. He wanted to taste her again, but he didn't want to move. He didn't want to spook her.  
  
Kagome tilted her head again, 'I wonder... so much has changed, would he feel the same, or taste the same, now that I'm different?'  
  
Slowly, so she wouldn't spook InuYasha she leaned forward until she could touch her tongue to InuYasha's.  
  
"Should we come back later?" Akira's amused voice caused Kagome to mysteriously appear back under her original tree, blushing deeply, and InuYasha to suddenly be standing with his back pressed against the God tree, wearing a slight blush and looking for a way out.  
  
"Come on kids," Akira coxed, "calm down, we've got some things to talk about, remember?"  
  
InuYasha settled down to the ground, still blushing, but Kagome remained unmoved.  
  
"I believe that you had some questions for me?" Akira sat near InuYasha and looked at Kagome expectantly.  
  
"Um, yeah..." Kagome looked up at him bashfully, "That wasn't what it looked like."  
  
Akira merely nodded.  
  
"So..." Kagome crawled a little closer to the men, then perched in a kneeling position and looked at them with wide eyes, but remained silent.  
  
"Kagome?" Sango asked quietly, "Are you alright?"  
  
Kagome shook her head, "Ev-everythings wrong." Kagome's voice started to waver and her lower lip trembled, "I move all wrong, I can't get used to my tail, my ears don't make any sense, everything's too bright, my claws are too sharp, I cut my self three times today! I have strange impulses, I'm all nervous, and everything smells strange and I don't know why!"  
  
Kagome settled down and wiped the tears from her eyes. It was bad enough that she had blurted all that out without her bawling in front of everyone.  
  
Akira blinked, "Ok, most of that is just getting used to your new form. Your claws will be sharper because you're young and female, but you should learn to dull them once you calm down a bit. That's what InuYasha does. You'll figure out how to work around them."  
  
"Dull them?" Kagome looked at InuYasha curiously. He just shrugged and looked at Akira.  
  
Akira sighed, "Ever notice how his claws are sharp enough to split hairs during battle? If his claws were always that sharp he would have a hard time caring for himself and couldn't ever touch others. I'm guessing you've been on guard since you changed, it's a youkai thing in general, nails are easy to manipulate so we generally wear human nails unless we need our claws for some reason."  
  
Kagome nodded, "So when I calm down, my claws will become dull?"  
  
"No..." Akira looked at InuYasha, who was looking at his claws, "They will get somewhat duller, and once you reach true maturity they will be as manageable as InuYasha's. But as a female and kitsune, your claws will always be a little sharper then his." Akira looked thoughtful, what else had she said? "Everything's too bright?"  
  
Kagome nodded, "It's not too bad here, in the forest, but out in the open when the sun is shining directly on everything, I can't see things well."  
  
"Is it painful?" Akira asked, concerned.  
  
"No, just annoying." Kagome answered, "And exhausting, squinting all the time."  
  
Akira lowered his head and closed his eyes in thought, "Hanyous are half transformed and kitsunes are creatures of evening and early morning... Your night vision is likely better InuYasha's, though I wouldn't test him. There is a difference in the way that humans and kitsunes see the world... I've never been human so I don't know, you might learn to adjust for this ... brightness." Akira paused to scratch his neck, "When it comes to senses I think you should ask InuYasha, or some other hanyou, I've never been human so I don't know what the difference is. What do you mean you move differently?"  
  
"I don't know." Kagome sighed, "I... crawl more, and better." She offered, "and when I'm on my feet I ... sway, a little. Or bits of me do."  
  
Akira grinned; he'd noticed that, "You don't walk much differently. Though you might find that your tail moves on its own once you calm down."  
  
"Is it that obvious?" Kagome asked uncertainly. She thought she had done a good job keeping her nervousness to herself, but the way Akira spoke it was very obvious.  
  
"Mostly just talking to you now." Akira replied, "Female kitsunes move their tails more than males and it tells a lot about them, mostly their emotional state. When they hold their tails still, it means they are nervous. It's like holding your breath to hear better."  
  
"That's not fair!" Kagome rose up a little on her knees, "You shouldn't be able to tell that stuff about me just by looking at my tail."  
  
"And it isn't fair that you can get a good idea of InuYashas' state of mind by looking at his ears, but you can." Akira countered.  
  
"Hey!" InuYasha's ears perked indignantly.  
  
"Why only the females?" Sango asked, despite her better judgment.  
  
Akira grinned again, "We have a story about that, the males do, the females don't like it very much. But it has been told that long ago the females used to have sport with the males, getting them ... in a state and laughing at them for a lack of control."  
  
"That hardly seems fair." Miroku said.  
  
Akira nodded, "So, someone, I don't remember, decided that the females would have something they had almost no control over and changed the way they interacted with their tales. But that is just a story."  
  
"What else does my tail say about me?" Kagome pouted prettily.  
  
"You really want me to spell it out in front of your friends?" Akira asked.  
  
"No!" Kagome squeaked.  
  
Akira chuckled.  
  
"I've always wondered about the youkai forms." Sango asked after a moment of silence, "If Kagome is part way between them, why does she look like she does? Why do other hanyou look more like their youkai parents power form? Why does Kouga have a tail and InuYasha not?"  
  
Every one settled in to listen intently, closed his eyes and dropped his head a little to aid in hearing.  
  
"Alright, I know a little about the youkai forms and hanyou's." Akira closed his eyes in thought, "A youkai's physical appearance, in the human like form, is based on several factors. Power, lineage, alignment, and age.  
  
"The more powerful a youkai is the more attractive they are. Power, goes closely with lineage to determine the shape that our bodies take, but more on that latter. The form of that attractiveness is determined by alignment, a powerful bad youkai will look sexy, while an equally powerful good youkai will look beautiful to an equal degree. That's just for animal youkai, other beings, and youkai in power form go by different rules. Age is fairly obvious so that's about all I know on that. So InuYasha and Kagome are so attractive because their parent's power and their own power is so great, or potentially great.  
  
"Actually Kagome's color, the color of her tail, is a variation that is thought among kitsunes to represent great power. So seeing it on a hanyou is ... interesting, though I thought all a long that people were underestimating InuYasha's potential."  
  
"What about Kouga's tail?" Sango reminded him.  
  
"Yes, lineage." Akira sighed, "That sort of 'ranks' youkai. The lowest youkai don't really have physical forms. The next level looks just like the animal they represent, only usually sporting a third eye. Kirara, beings that do not represent any living thing, come next. Then come the youkai that look partially transformed, like Myouga. As you go up the ranks more and more of the animal features are dropped. One of the last features to go is the tail, Kitsunes and Wolf youkai both sport tails, Inu's don't have them.  
  
"It isn't really a hard rule that the less animal features the more powerful a youkai is, especially in the higher ranks." Akira amended quickly, "That is a common mistake and is one reason that youkai have such a bad reaction to InuYasha. His lack of additional animal features would mean that he is potentially powerful, but as a hanyou they believe he shouldn't be. It really just measures the closeness to the The youkai."  
  
"The The youkai?" Kagome tilted her head slightly.  
  
Akira grinned nervously, "That's what my sister calls them. They are the beings that humans got the definitions of what an inu or wolf or kitsune represents. They don't have human forms; they don't need them. But you may have noticed the Inu's of InuYasha's family are very large when they transform, while Kitsunes are only about the size of a large wolf when we transform. It's because Inu's are closer to their The youkai. Anything else?" Akira looked around at the group who were busy absorbing all that they had been told.  
  
Miroku opened his eyes and raised his head to look at Akira, "You have a sister?"  
  
---  
  
A/N: Aloysha I forgot to mention that you were right about the boxed in reference in chapter 10! And you were the only one to comment on it.  
  
I am still a die hard Inu/Kag fan, for those of you that are worried about that.  
  
It's always good to hear from you Preist (there was supposed to be a smily face here the upright kind but it won't save sorry.)  
  
Redherring, Kagome's condition is being revealed as slowly as she is discovering it. It was disturbing for her for so much to change so suddenly so she's taking her time getting used to it. She will continue to learn over the next few chapters, or more. It should be fun!  
  
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please take the time to review.


	13. Pup Talk

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 13: Pup Talk

"Yeah, I have several sisters." Akira answered Miroku slowly.

"Would they be willing to... see us?" Miroku asked carefully.

"...Maybe." Akira answered slowly and a little suspiciously.

"The girl at the farm said that InuYasha should seek his kitsunes sister." Shippo explained, "But I don't have a sister. She also said that she "would not see us"."

"Ah," Akira nodded slowly, still a little confused. What farm? "And you believe that she meant one of my sisters? I'll see what I can do. InuYasha, I'd like to talk to you alone for a minute."

"That's it?" Kagome jumped up, shocked, "Just "you'll get used to it bye!" Kagome stomped her foot in anger, "You said you would help me!"

"Kagome," Sango moved to her friend's side while InuYasha edged away from the spiking miko power, "He has helped more than you can see right now. He has explained much about your condition, but hanyou's are rare-"

"But," Kagome whimpered mournfully, "He said he could help."

Akira shook his head, "I said that I would help you after the kit taught you all he could. I agreed to help you and InuYasha understand the kitsune part of you, I've done as much as I can right now. There are some things that you'll have to learn on your own."

Kagome nodded sadly. Akira watched in with some awe as the hurt, anger and sadness evaporated as his words sank in.

"Fine," she said almost cheerfully, "Then... I'm going to take a bath, Sango would you like to join me?"

"But, the water in the river is cold," Sango said hesitantly, "and you just got over your fever."

"You don't have to get in with me," Kagome argued mildly, "but I can't stand sponge baths anymore." Kagome stretched luxuriously as she thought about the upcoming bath, "I just can't wait to strip naked and immerse my body in that crisp cool water!"

"Come on Kagome," Sango sighed and grabbed her hand, minding the claws, "Lets go get you that bath."

AAAA

"What was so important you couldn't tell me in front of everyone else?" InuYasha sat next to Akira in a small clearing far away from Miroku and Shippo.

"I wanted to talk to you about Kagome." Akira said bluntly, "You have to remember that she isn't a youkai or hanyou and she isn't' a human. Right now she's somewhere in between trying to find her way to her new self. She needs to be taught how to use her hanyou body and senses. You're the best to do the job. And she needs to be protected, from herself and others. In some ways she is a child, in others she is very much an adolescent. Let's see, I told Miroku and Sango some of this so you can ask them about that."

"What the hell? Slow down!" InuYasha leaned forward slightly confused, "Kagome's... what does that leave?"

Akira smiled tolerantly, he had been going fast, but he didn't like repeating himself, "She's a little of everything I guess, like you are, but for her it hasn't all balanced out yet."

"Fine, I get that." InuYasha put one hand to his head as he sorted through what Akira had said so quickly, "How... am I supposed to teach her anything?"

"Well, you become human every now and then right?" Akira asked cautiously.

InuYasha just glared at him.

"Yeah, well, you know how humans perceive the world better than any youkai." Akira explained, "And you know how canine type youkai, err hanyou, perceive the world too, so you can help her to adjust better then anyone."

"But how?" InuYasha asked darkly.

"I have no idea." Akira admitted, "Getting her used to her body and training her instincts should be easier. Hey maybe that will help! Teaching her to hunt and track may cover most of the senses."

"Teach Kagome to hunt?" InuYasha asked incredulously. He tried to picture Kagome sneaking up on a "cute, furry" animal and pouncing on it. He actually choked on his laughter. It didn't help that he still saw her as the slightly clumsy human "school girl".

"Focus InuYasha." Akira scowled, "Teaching Kagome to hunt may be the only way to introduce her properly to her senses. Oh, and chase."

"You want me to chase Kagome?" InuYasha asked blankly.

"No, stupid." Akira stood up and started to pace, InuYasha was giving him a headache, "I want Kagome to chase you."

"That makes more sense." InuYasha nodded, "So you want me to play pup games with her to get her in shape?"

"Yes," Akira said, slightly surprised.

"And it has to be me because..." he knew there was a reason, he just couldn't quite find it.

"...any other pup would be too small to challenge her." Akira finished for him.

"I knew that, I'm not stupid." InuYasha scowled at him, "What... are these games?"

AAAA

"Yay! Water!" Kagome skipped to the waters edge ready to jump right in.

"Kagome stop!" Sango called after her in an almost motherly reprimand, "Remove your clothes first, they're your last set."

Kagome paused, looking into the water at her reflected clothing. They were patched and the shirt was now off white. She looked pretty sad really, it was long past time to get some new uniforms.

"Alright Sango." Kagome sighed, she was quick about removing her clothes but stayed on the bank to look at her newly uncovered body.

It wasn't that different, but something was... off. She seemed a little more shapely, more pulled in... Kagome ran her hand along her hip and stomach.

"Hey Sango!" Kagome turned to her friend, "I'm as buff as you are!"

"What?" Sango looked up from polishing her Hiratsu, 'I'm buff?'

"Here," Kagome trotted closer to her, "feel my stomach." Kagome patted her stomach in demonstration.

Sango gave her a strange look, then reached out slowly to feel her young friend's stomach.

"What do you think?" Kagome beamed at her, hands on her hips.

"I've never felt your stomach before Kagome." Sango stated as she returned to polishing her weapon.

"Well, trust me, I'm a lot firmer under my subcutaneous fat. I wonder how strong I am now..."

"Just take your bath, Kagome." Sango mumbled, "Before Miroku decides to follow us."

Kagome shrugged and hopped off to the river, tail swaying happily. Slowly she put first one foot in the cold water, then the other. Then, after instinctively pinning back her ears to seal them, she jumped joyfully into the middle, where she knew the river was deep.

The cold water rushed over her, and though she could feel it, it didn't make her uncomfortable or even numb. It was strangely exhilarating and Kagome spun and flipped under the water playfully, simply enjoying the movements of her "new" body. She didn't even realize how long she had been under until she heard an urgent voice from the surface.

Kagome pouted, she hadn't really been down _that_ long. Kagome kicked her way to the surface.

"Kagome!" Sango gasped in relief, "You scared me for a minute."

"I know how to swim Sango." Kagome said crossly, "_And_ I know that _you_ can hold your breath that long."

"But _you_ can't, uh, couldn't." Sango explained as she settled back to her work, "Hurry and finish your bath before you get sick again."

"Yes Sango." Kagome said in a teasing mock, "Right away Sango."

Kagome obediently swam back to the bank and picked up her soap but stopped and wrinkled her nose. Boy, did they stink! Hesitantly Kagome brought the perfumed bar closer to her face. It didn't smell anything like it was supposed to, like a light floral perfume. Instead it smelled... caustic, like it was about to burn her nose, and almost alcoholic. There was no way she could use that!

Putting down the bar of soap she tentatively grabbed her shampoo. She frowned when her nose had a similar reaction to that... Now what was she going to do?

Kagome looked at Sango, who was watching her curiously, then she turned back to the offensive cleaning agent. Acting quickly and without thinking Kagome grabbed the soaps and washed herself clean, breathing as little as possible. She stayed in the water rinsing herself a little longer then necessary to get as much of the soap smell off as possible.

"Kagome!" Sango called suddenly as she stood and approached the rivers edge, "You've cut yourself."

Kagome slowly pulled her hand from her arm, her dainty claws were tinted pink. She turned her arm slightly and saw a small gash along the back bleeding heavily.

"Come here Kagome," Sango knelt on the bank, "I'll patch you up."

Kagome reluctantly did as she was told. As she sat there, naked, on the rivers edge with Sango cleaning and bandaging her arm, she considered her new reflection in the water.

AAAA

InuYasha was lying in a tree near Keade's house, where the others were sleeping, thinking about the conversations he'd had that day. 'Kagome's a child... no, a pup, and I have to help raise her. That's just fucked up.' He smirked.

Suddenly a ball of red fur fell heavily onto his stomach.

"What the hell?" InuYasha gasped and sat up, holding the offending creature by the tail, "Shippo! Never sneak up on me like that!"

Shippo blinked tiredly up at InuYasha, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"What?" InuYasha looked back down at hut, "Did Kagome kick you out or something?"

"No," Shippo yawned, "She's crying again."

"Kagome's crying?" InuYasha turned back to Shippo, "Why?"

Shippo shrugged, "I don't know, she's asleep, really deep, but she's crying, she did it last night too. It was unsettling so... I came here. Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Uh, sure runt." InuYasha leaned against the tree and dropped Shippo in his lap, "Just don't drool on me."

Once Shippo settled down InuYasha turned his eyes back to the hut.

A/N: I'm glad that everyone is enjoying the story, If it was slow to get started it's because there is a lot of set up in this story. It looks to be long one. I'm sorry that it's a short chapter, but the next one is going to be long. For me anyway.


	14. Hitomi

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 14: Hitomi

"It's just for a little while!" Kagome threw up her hands in exasperation. She was standing next to the well with her bag waiting on the rim.

"You can't go running around your home like that!" InuYasha growled. They had already wasted enough time waiting for her to recover from the transformation.

"I can disguise myself." Kagome crossed her arms and leaned back in a confident impatient pose, "It's not like I'm going anywhere. There won't be any important tests for weeks still, but I need to get supplies…. And I need to face my family." She finished nervously.

InuYasha's scowl remained in place and his body stayed in its arrogant pose, but in truth, _that_ was the main reason he worried about Kagome returning home. He didn't want to find out that Kagome's family would reject her, or see how she would deal with it.

"Akira's bringing his sister by today." Miroku came up to stand next to InuYasha.

"So?" InuYasha frowned at him.

Miroku sighed, "So we can't go traveling today or we'll miss them." He said to InuYasha, "And likewise Kagome can't go home or she'll miss what information she has."

Kagome and InuYasha were both quiet for a moment. But Kagome recovered first.

"I'll just pop over there, grab some supplies, a few changes of clothes, and pop right back!" She said brightly.

InuYasha frowned at her, "You'll fall asleep or something and I'LL have to go get you. Like I always do."

Kagome frowned at him, "You do not! I come back on my own all the time! YOU just try to pull me back early."

"You always want to stay the night! _And_ you over sleep and we're always late leaving!" InuYasha yelled back.

"I do not!" Kagome shouted again, "How can we be late? We usually don't have an agenda!"

"Maybe if we got there earlier less people would be dead waiting for you to catch up!" InuYasha shouted back.

"InuYasha! I will not be…." Kagome flexed her claws unconsciously in her anger, "I won't be blamed for stuff we don't know is going on!"

"You know the jewel is out there!" InuYasha yelled at her, "You know what it can do! But you're too busy sleeping and taking tests to think about how many lives it's ruining!"

"INUYASHA!" Kagome panted in ragged breaths, she couldn't take any more of this. She had sacrificed so much of her life to this quest that she had trouble keeping her place in her time. If she didn't go home every now and then to get some relief from the chaos and heartache of her life in this time she probably would have had a breakdown… or killed InuYasha. Right now, that didn't feel like such a bad idea.

Without warning, or thought, Kagome leaped forward knocking InuYasha down. Her claws embedded themselves in his jacket over his heart as they fell, and she subconsciously adjusted her landing so that she would be kneeling straddling his torso. Miko energy had begun to concentrate in her hands as InuYasha hit the grass with an "oof!", but dissipated when she realized that the small growling sound was not coming from InuYasha, but from her.

InuYasha looked up at her, amused after his initial shock. Actually he thought it was the cutest thing he had ever heard. Kagome withdrew her claws from his clothes and sat back on his stomach. Her eyes were wide and one hand flew up to her touch her now silent neck.

InuYasha laughed, he couldn't help it. Her shocked expression after that cute little feminine growl overwhelmed both his sense of self -preservation and his deep rooted wish to appear unfazed and angry to the world. But that wasn't unusual when Kagome was around.

"Kagome! That was cool!" Shippo chirped as he bounced to a spot next to Kagome, "You knocked InuYasha over! And you're growl was really … cute!"

Kagome looked at Shippo and blinked her eyes, still confused and alarmed that she had attacked InuYasha, and growled. When his words registered she jumped up and shouted, "I AM NOT CUTE! And I heard you laughing InuYasha. I'll deal with you when I get back."

She jumped from her position over InuYasha to the well and then down to her time with her bag.

InuYasha gave a barking laugh when he sat up and looked at the well.

"What did I say?" Shippo asked curiously, but he got over it quickly. The faster Kagome over reacted, the faster she got over whatever upset her. "Hey InuYasha, look at that! Kagome poked holes in your clothes!"

InuYasha looked down at his at his haori. There were ten little picks in the material. Curious, he loosened his shirt. Shippo jumped into his lap and looked down the gap to see what InuYasha saw.

What they saw were ten little scratches that were obviously left from Kagome's claws.

"Wow," Shippo said as he looked InuYasha in the face, "Kagome's claws must be really sharp."

"What is it Shippo?" Sango asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"Kagome scratched InuYasha." Shippo said, "She scratched him through the fire rat and made him bleed."

"Feh." InuYasha commented as he stood, causing Shippo to fall off his lap, and turned to walk to the god tree.

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Kagome remained on the bottom of the well, afraid to venture out. She took a deep breath and grabbed the ladder. She had to get out of the well, even if she decided to run back to the feudal era, she still had to leave the well. Slowly she peered over the lip of the well as if looking for danger.

She sighed. This was ridiculous. Her family wasn't going to attack her…probably. They loved her. They could accept her. Right?

She took a deep breath. The smell of the wood and stone of the shrine above a backdrop scent of acrid metal and gases surprised her. Now was not the time to think about these things, however, now was the time to deal with her family. She took another deep cleansing breath and walked up to the kitchen door, where she stopped. Maybe she should make herself appear human first…

Kagome wasn't given the chance to put her disguise up before her mother opened the door.

"Oh Kagome!" her mother smiled at her, "You're back early, we weren't expecting you for another week."

"Uh, something happened. We're back at Keade's for a while." Kagome hesitantly entered the house.

"Is everything alright?" Her mother looked at her more closely, "You look much better than when you left."

"Oh, Yeah, I _feel_ better." Kagome smiled at her mother nervously, "but, um, there was this… thing. Don't you notice anything different about me?"

"Oh? You mean the ears?" She grinned at her daughter, "Are they real?" she raised her hands to Kagome large black fox ears and gently rubbed them between her thumbs and fingers. Her eyes widened slightly, "They _are_ real." She breathed, and gave Kagome a curious look, "What happened?"

"That's it?" Kagome asked softly, not wanting to startle her mother into a normal reaction, "I leave a human girl and return a kitsune hanyou and you're fine."

"I don't know what happened yet." Her mother smiled at her, "Wait, I'll make some tea and you can tell me how this happened."

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While Kagome was having tea with her mother, the others gathered under the god tree to wait for Akira and his sister.

"Why did Kagome react like that when I told her her growl was cute?" Shippo asked once he grew bored.

"How do you feel when Kagome calls your growl cute?" Miroku answered. He sat under a tree near the god tree, which InuYasha was sitting under. Sango leaned against another tree across from them and Shippo was standing next to InuYasha, with his hands on InuYasha's knee.

"But that's different, Kagome's a girl." Shippo reasoned, then laughed, "I still can't believe that Kagome attacked you like that."

"Feh." InuYasha responded.

"That was out of her usual character." Miroku nodded wisely, "Why didn't she just use the subduing spell to shut you up?"

"Keh!" InuYasha pouted.

"He can't be that mad because Kagome wounded him!" Shippo looked into InuYasha's face, shocked.

"I'm not wounded!" InuYasha shouted, causing Shippo to fall back on the ground, "The… _scratches_ are gone already."

"He's worried about Kagome." Sango said quietly.

InuYasha turned his attention to Sango, was he that easy to read?

"Kagome left home a Miko and is returning a hanyou." Sango continued in a small worried voice.

Miroku nodded again. Shippo jumped onto InuYasha's knee and caught his attention, "Do you think her family will be upset? What will they do?"

InuYasha was silent for a moment, he lacked Kagome's belief in humans, but…, "Kagome's family's weird." Was all the encouragement he could give the kit.

Shippo nodded sadly, "Well, if they don't want her around anymore she'll be with us all the time."

"Shippo!" Sango admonished, "That's terrible!"

"Just looking on the bright side." Shippo defended himself, a little sadly.

They fell into silence and waited. And worried.

"I am the kitsune that you were sent to find." A young girls voice came out of the shadows of the forest to Miroku's left, and a small kitsune youkai an inch or two shorter than Shippo, and more sleek in build, stepped out into the dim light, and stood still for a moment staring straight at the god tree. She was wearing a simple blue cotton kimono of a style that children often wore. Her red hair was cut short and fell straight to her shoulders allowing only the very tips of her pointed ears to stick out. Her wide eyes were a soft blue and contrasted sharply with her stark white irises. She took a few steps forward as she began to speak again, "You were sent to me for guid-"

She tripped over the end of Mirokus' staff and fell to the ground with a sharp yelp.

A cruel, brotherly laugh foretold Akira's arrival, "So much for a grand entrance."

The kit growled at him.

"Calm down Hitomi." Akira leaned down and picked her up, "She's not here anyway."

"Put me down!" Hitomi squirmed in her brother's hold, "I remember this place!"

Akira frowned, "You'll tear your kimono."

"So?" Hitomi pouted.

Akira sighed and put his sister down near the god tree.

Hitomi turned around and stuck out her hands in front of her. She waved them a bit as she searched for some scenery. It wasn't long before she ran into one of the roots and gained her bearings.

"You're blind." Shippo stated, "That's why you won't see us!"

Hitomi turned her head in his direction and nodded, "Destiny says she didn't have much time in that girl's body."

"What? Who's Destiny?" InuYasha scowled at the Hitomi, "Why did she send us to you?"

"…" Hitomi appeared to be listening to something, "Destiny is a little presence, almost a voice, in the back of your head that tells you what to do. She is a sister to the fates and on the side of the greater good."

"… Huh?" InuYasha replied intelligently.

Hitomi sighed, "She is the presence in your head that tries to get you to do things so that the plan of the fates can be unobstructed. Even if it isn't the best thing for you, it's the best thing for everyone else. She is the one that tells you to turn your back on an old well, even though you know the noise wasn't caused by the cat. She's the one that tells you not to say a name out loud.

"But she isn't alone in there." Hitomi continued, "She wouldn't be needed if there wasn't a being like her telling you to do the wrong stuff."

"I don't hear anything." InuYasha huffed.

Hitomi continued sadly, "Destiny says you stopped listening a long time ago. She had to tell you to do too many things you came to regret. But, destiny says that you also stopped listening to the other one too. So you're all alone in there."

"I thought the idea of "fate" and "destiny" precluded free will," Miroku leaned forward, into the conversation, "that they were unchangeable futures. But what you are saying suggests that we have free will."

"Humans think a lot of things." Hitomi scoffed, "Destiny says that if there are things out there trying to maintain order, and subsequently are out side their own influence, it stands to reason there are things out there trying to break the order down or make it suit them better. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here for Kagome."

"Ah," Shippo blinked at her uncertainly, "So… why does she cry?"

Hitomi was silent, again she appeared to be listening, "Destiny says that Kagome is reliving her life while she sleeps, to condition her new heart."

"New heart?" Miroku asked uneasily.

Hitomi nodded, "Destiny says that Kagome's heart is only half human now, it's also half youkai. Kitsune youkai actually. So she needs to feel her past with her new heart."

"What does this mean for Kagome to have a partially kitsune youkai heart?" Miroku asked with trepidation.

"…Destiny says that it probably won't mean much, once she's calmed down." Hitomi answered, "You probably don't know this, but Youkai hearts are much more brittle than human ones. Or at least that's the way it seems. And they heal much slower. But the joys and heartbreaks that Kagome is reliving in her sleep should remain as memories. Destiny says that she's almost done."

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"I was given the option of leaving it alone and turning into a horrible demon that feeds off of people or… putting my trust in… something." Kagome trailed off again, she had been doing that a lot while she told her story. She hadn't gone very deep, only explaining that Sorrell had tricked her, not how, or what she was becoming, "But… I felt I should take that risk, that I should stay in the quest and trust… that … thing."

Kagome's mother nodded, "And that's when you became a Kitsune hanyou?"

Kagome nodded sullenly.

"That's good then." Her mother smiled brightly at her, "I would hate for you to become something you hate. And now I won't have to worry about you as much. Right?"

"I guess, maybe." Kagome frowned into her nearly empty cup, "What about Souta and Grampa?"

"Don't worry about them, they're not here right now." She waved off the subject, "How long are you home this time?"

"Not long," Kagome smiled wearily, "I'm just here for supplies and some new uniforms."

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"Why a kitsune?" InuYasha scowled fiercely at the little fox girl, "why did you make her a fucking kitsune?"

Hitomi looked toward him curiously, "Did you want her to be your sister?"

The scowl on InuYasha's face faded into a shocked, confused look, "Uh…"

Hitomi shook her head, "Destiny says Kagome's attitude and miko instinct, no matter how well buried, goes in line better with Kitsune magic than it does with the more battle oriented inu's. Besides they could never have gotten permission from your half-brother to do it, while Kagome has been accepted by Shippo's family since she risked her life for him."

"Oh." InuYasha sat back.

"Why don't you like Kitsunes?" Hitomi asked innocently.

"I don't, not like kitsunes." InuYasha answered haltingly, normally he wouldn't bother, but she was looking at him with those big blind eyes asking why he didn't like her, "I, just don't like Kagome being a kitsune. She's free thinking enough, and she already gets in trouble if I don't watch her. How the hell am I supposed to protect her now?"

"… I don't know." Hitomi replied, sounding her age again.

"Don't look at me." Akria shrugged, when everybody did, "I have enough trouble with this one." He nodded at Hitomi.

Hitomi gave them a troubled frown, "Where is Kagome?"

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Kagome pulled herself over the edge of the well easily, but hesitantly. She had wanted to try jumping, but the over stimulation from her senses was still making her nervous.

Her grandpa and little brother hadn't come home during her short visit, and her mother said that she would try to break the news to them before she came back. Until then she just had to master being a kitsune and do some preliminary studying before school started up again. With her new strength she had managed to squeeze in some school books this time.

Once she was sure she was alone she sat back on the rim of the well, eyes closed, ears relaxed, enjoying the smell of the sun drenched clearing. The grass, flowers, trees, the hot old wood under her. The cool shadows under the trees she could smell on the slight breeze that brushed her face gently. The slight smell of wet earth and decay rising from the well didn't take away from her experience at all, in fact it seemed perfectly natural and calming.

"Hey."

Kagome nearly jumped out of her shoes, "INUYASHA! Don't do that!" Kagome panted as she turned around to face him, "You almost gave me a heart attack! How'd you do that anyway?"

"I'm upwind." InuYasha dismissed, "you should have heard me coming." He added as he sat on the ground next to her, his back against the well.

"I wasn't listening…" Kagome thought back, she was so wrapped up in all the smells she hadn't been paying attention to any other senses, "I was smelling."

"You can't just do one." InuYasha scowled, eyes closed, "you've got to do it all or something will sneak up on you. You got to … feel too."

"Hey! That's a lot of information to take in." Kagome crouched next to him, "I'm still getting used to it. Why are you here anyway?"

"My well." InuYasha answered simply.

"No," Kagome corrected impatiently, "my well, your tree." She pointed back to the crown of the god tree above the canopy.

"My land." InuYasha opened his eyes only the smallest amount and smirked infuriatingly.

Anger balled up inside Kagome and her fingers alternately curled and stretched, "My RAMEN!" she shouted before throwing her bag on her back and running at her increased speed toward Keades. She was so angry she was lightheaded and she didn't know why.

Suddenly she felt very light as her feet left the ground. She was suspended from her shoulder straps as InuYasha lifted the bag up to the branch he was squatting in.

"Fine." He said, "Your well." And he put her back down.

She stumbled slightly while she regained her balance. Her anger was gone, "Um… Ok… good. Where is everyone?"

"Back at the god tree." InuYasha dropped down next to her, "Come on, the Kitsunes sister's waiting for you."

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"Can't you just tell us a little?" Shippo was sitting in front of Hitomi, trying to get her to answer more questions, she had refused to do so after she had explained the fates' choice of forms for Kagome. Insisting that she was here for Kagome, not for them.

"I don't know anything!" Hitomi threw her arms up in the air, "I only know what Destiny tells me, and what I see. And she hasn't told me much."

"… I thought you were blind." Shippo stated uncertainly.

"I am." Hitomi crossed her arms in annoyance, "I can only see the memories the land shows me."

"Ah…" Shippo replied.

"Kagome's here." Akira announced quietly.

Hitomi looked up and sniffed around, "Kagome?"

Kagome walked up to the girl and knelt next to Shippo, "Yes. You've been waiting for me?"

"Yes Kagome!" Hitomi jumped up and hopped forward, putting her small hands on Kagome's knees, "I'm here to help you, but, I want to travel with you. I want you to help me learn to be a miko!"

Akira slapped his forehead soundly, "Hitomi…"

"Not a real miko, I know." Hitomi continued despite her brother, "But you can show me how to be kinder and nicer than my family can. You can teach me how to help people!"

"I thought you were supposed to help her." InuYasha stated from just inside the clearing.

"I am, so I've got to come with you anyway. For a bit." Hitomi's jaw took on a stubborn pose, "But Kagome can help me too. A blind being is as good as youkai chow, and rarely lives long without something special going for them."

"But… Hitomi," Kagome spoke carefully, "I'm not much of a miko myself."

"That's Ok." Hitomi grinned, "Destiny says your instincts should strengthen with time, and lessons learned by past lives will quicken the process. There are many miko's in your past Kagome."

"Well, I guess, if you're coming any way…." She looked at InuYasha, who scowled.

"She's your responsibility Shippo." InuYasha growled.

"What! How did that happen?" Shippo turned to InuYasha.

"Kagome can't keep track of both of you." InuYasha walked up to Shippo and stared down at him, "You have to keep an eye on her."

"I don't know why he's saying all that," Sango whispered to Miroku, "One of us will just end up carrying her like we do Shippo."

"Hey, uh, do I get any say in this?" Akira asked casually.

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A/N: Not my best chapter, but info chapters never are.

As I mentioned in another of my stories, all my stories take place in a universe that fractures sometime shortly after the first Kouga incident, because that's when I first started writing it.

I'm sure Kagome love InuYasha as he is and I'm also sure InuYasha loves Kagome as a human… but would he _only_ love her if she were human? Would he stop loving her if she changed? These are the questions, and more, that will be answered in this fic. Seriously though, the fates weren't worried about InuYasha when they offered Kagome a way out and Kagome certainly wasn't thinking about her "relationship" with InuYasha when she took it.

Thanks for all your reviews and please review now.


	15. Insomnia

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 15: Insomnia

Kagome lay on her stomach on an especially luxurious patch of grass while the sun gently fell on her back. Her eyes were closed and her ears drooped lazily. Vaguely she wished that she could remove her clothes and feel the sun and grass on her bare skin.

Suddenly, a dark swirlyness entered her sunny sanctuary.

"Just five more minutes InuYasha." She mumbled and buried her eyes in the crook of her arm.

InuYasha was annoyed, thus the dark swirlyness, "You're not supposed to be here at all." He grumbled down at her, "Get up, lunch is over."

"Ah!" Kagome hopped up to her knees, and squinted at him against the strong light, "But I didn't get a chance to eat!"

"Tough." InuYasha hauled her up by her arm, "You'll live."

"InuYasha," Kagome whimpered, her tail hanging loosely behind her as she pouted cutely, "I'm hungry."

"Don't try anything on me Kagome," InuYasha warned, "it's your own fault anyway."

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For the rest of the day the hanyous pouted and walked at an angry clip. Much to the annoyance of the rest of the group behind them, the two great clashing energies wore exhaustingly against their own. Finally, as the sun neared the horizon, Miroku spotted a sheltered clearing off the road and called for the group to halt.

"InuYasha, it's time to stop." Miroku announced tiredly and moved off into the place he meant to camp with Shippo perched on his shoulder. Sango quickly and quietly followed him, holding Hitomi in her arms and Kirara trotting at her heels.

InuYasha turned around to yell at the monk about his human weakness and not to order him like that, only to see that the road behind him was empty.

"Where'd they go?" Kagome asked somewhat bewildered.

InuYasha looked around the edge of the road before the wind changed enough for him to catch their scent, "This way." He ordered.

Kagome reluctantly complied and followed him into the unnaturally quiet camp. She wasn't reluctant from fear, but she felt strangely galled about being ordered around, especially by InuYasha.

Sango, Miroku, Kirara and the kits were sitting on the ground leaning limply against the trunks of trees, or sprawled on dark ground, starring into space as if recovering from a long battle instead of a simple walk over flat land.

"What happened to them?" Kagome breathed in a worried tone.

InuYasha shook his head in confusion, nothing seemed strange or dangerous here.

Miroku turned his eyes to the couple before closing them slowly, "The two of you have worn us out." He pushed the words from his mouth with effort, "Kagome, could you please make us some food?"

Kagome nodded wide-eyed, she didn't understand what they could have done to cause this. She immediately started to clear an area for a fire.

"InuYasha could you get some wood?" Kagome asked as she worked.

"Keh, that's Shippo's job." InuYasha said crossly, but moved to gather some firewood anyway.

It wasn't long before they had a merry little fire and Kagome was cooking ramen for the group. With the sudden and unexpected peace between Kagome and InuYasha, and the smell of warming food, the group began to become slowly reenergized.

"That was quick." Shippo yawned and licked his lips as Kagome finished pouring the boiling water into the plastic bowls.

"Yeah," Hitomi climbed onto Miroku's knee, "what happened to their anger?"

"They weren't really angry." Miroku explained.

"Kagome was mad at InuYasha," Shippo joined her on Miroku's other knee, "Because she slept through lunch and he wouldn't let her eat."

"That's silly." Hitomi frowned, "She's the one that chose to nap."

"She wasn't _that_ mad until InuYasha got mad at her for being mad at him." Miroku continued.

"That's what made her really mad." Shippo finished, "But they weren't _really_ mad, or Kagome would have run off home."

"Oh."

"Ramens ready!" Kagome called and the group gathered around the happy little fire to eat.

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Kagome sighed despondently and turned carefully onto her back, tucking her pelvis slightly to accommodate her tail in this position. She had to bring her knees up to relieve the pressure. Everyone else was already asleep and had been for hours. The kits were curled by her side on her sleeping bag, blocking the warmth of the dwindling fire while she tried not to let them snuggle her right out of her bag and into the chill night. Then there were her pj's, the modifications to her clothes never seemed to be quite right anyway and she obviously needed a bigger hole for her tail in this outfit.

It was completely unfair, she thought, that she was so tired at lunch and during the afternoon and now, when she had the chance to sleep, she was wide-awake. It didn't help that she was trying not to be introspective. She had tried that when she first transformed, but found it too difficult to comprehend her situation. She wasn't sure what she would be like when she got used to this new body. The fact that she needed still more time to do that annoyed her greatly, but she had concluded that introspection on her new self would have to wait until she gained a better understanding of her new body.

And now she was anxious, uncomfortable, and defiantly wide awake. She turned her eyes to InuYasha. He was one tree over, on a branch halfway up, leaning against the trunk and hugging his sword. One leg was dangling off the branch… he probably wasn't really asleep…. 'I wonder how close I would be able to get to him before he would wake up.' She thought.

Slowly, carefully, as if pulled by some unreasonable mischief that she was powerless to oppose, she slid out of her sleeping bag. She crouched on her hands and toes and moved in more ease then she should have had in that position to the tree where InuYasha dozed. She was proud at how little noise she made on the way over, it was only just noticeable by her own super human ears.

At the base of the tree she straightened from a crawl into a crouch and observed the dozing inu hanyou on the branch just over ten feet above the ground. Vaguely, Kagome wondered if she could jump the entire distance, but decided against it. She would start small, jumping to the branch just above her head first.

She sprang gently from her crouch straight up and made a clumsy grab for the thin branch but missed on her way up. She passed the branch by half her body so she had time to recover and managed to catch it before she fell back to the ground. She pulled herself up to balance on the branch and glanced at InuYasha. He was unchanged.

The next few branches were closer. She probably could have reached them with only some difficulty before her body changed. Now she made a small leap up and forward for the next one, catching it easily and pulling her self up to perch on it in almost one fluid motion. The next one was closer, but back. She didn't even have to straighten out all the way, and ended up hopping in her perched position cleanly to it.

Turning she frowned, InuYasha was still unmoved, but his branch was higher and further away than the others. She didn't doubt that she could make it, but she had to do it right.

She took a moment to puzzle it through in her mind. InuYasha was against the trunk so she'd have to land on the outside, one leap, landing quietly, or she'd wake him for sure. She adjusted herself, readying for the jump and… she leapt.

She reached the branch easily, her feet landed on it barely causing a tremor, but her forward motion didn't stop and the one hand that reached down to hold the branch didn't help. Her other hand, the one nearest InuYasha waved in the air, trying to regain balance. But she was still moving.

Suddenly her hand was stilled and held steady.

"What do you think your doing?" InuYasha's gruff voice drifted from the direction of her steadied hand.

"Um," Kagome stared out into the night, all she could see in this direction was the forest, "I'm not really sure. Sneaking up on you I guess."

"Heh," InuYasha let go of her and she managed to steady herself, "Is that what that was? The kit could do better then that."

Kagome turned to scowl at him and he was caught by the starburst reflection of her eyes.

"Go back to sleep Kagome." InuYasha closed his eyes and let his head rest against the tree.

"I can't sleep!" Kagome pouted prettily and crossed her arms, "That's why I came here."

InuYasha opened one eye a crack and watched her carefully, "… What were you going to do once you caught me?"

Kagome's pout disappeared and was replaced by a cute thoughtful expression, "I hadn't really thought that far ahead… I hadn't really thought about what I was doing at all…" suddenly her face turned suspicious, "Hey! You weren't thinking something perverted were you?"

InuYasha's eyes shot open and he sat up, "Wh-what? No! I uh… do you want to run?"

Kagome's face became the picture of curiousity as she readjusted herself to face him better, "Run?"

"Yeah," InuYasha almost sighed in relief at the subject change, "you've gotten pretty fast, wanna see how fast?"

Kagome crawled up the branch toward him until she was leaning over him with her face so close to his he could feel her breath on his face, "You wanna see how fast I am?" she whispered breathlessly.

InuYasha swallowed, hard. The innocence of her wide eyes, and unchanged scent, belied the suggestive message of her words and proximity. He could feel the blush rising on his cheeks as he remembered the good night kisses that they shared before Sorrell took her. He cleared his throat as he tried desperately to find a way out of the situation, "I, uh…Yeah." He managed to whisper back, "Ya wanna back up Kagome?"

She started, apparently just realizing how close she was, and backed up with a blush of her own, "Sorry. Um, how do you… run?"

InuYasha barked out a laugh and Kagome looked nervously toward the camp, "You'll wake them up!"

"So?" InuYasha grinned at her, "Someone's got to keep watch while we're gone." He jumped down lightly to the ground.

"Gone? How far are we going?" Kagome crawled along the branch almost pacing. She knew she should be able to jump, but it was so far down!

InuYasha shrugged and kicked Miroku. During the ensuing argument Kagome managed a less then graceful decent from the tree. She was just happy that InuYasha hadn't seen her landing, and that she hadn't sprained her tail… and that she wasn't wearing a skirt. Miroku was still looking at her with laughing eyes though. Kagome pouted, he was probably imagining her in her school uniform.

On the bright side, it stopped the argument. As Miroku paused to grin at Kagome, InuYasha turned to see what had caught his attention and Kagome jumped to a standing position and gave him a hasty grin.

InuYasha shook his head and turned back to Miroku, "Shut up and keep watch."

Kagome waited under the tree for InuYasha to return, 'should I change into my uniform?' she thought.

"Come on." InuYasha almost stalked past her.

'No time,' Kagome thought as she followed InuYasha away from the ring of light, "Where are we going?" she asked.

InuYasha paused… the only light around was the stars and moon, which was nearly full. He looked to Kagome and squatted, motioning her to do the same. She did. He had been giving the training of Kagome some thought for a while. He was still confused.

"Uh, alright." He started, "I'll start running, and… you try to keep up. Ok?"

Kagome nodded, "Sure." A sudden fluttering nervousness manifested in her stomach.

InuYasha nodded back to her then looked up. The night expanded before them, bright clear and cool. A perfect night for running.

He stood hesitantly, still uncertain in his actions, but with a last fleeting glance at Kagome he took off at a comfortable lope.

After a moments hesitation Kagome broke into a run to catch up with him, but as soon as she did, he sped up. So she sped up and he did it again, and again. He kept doing that until she couldn't catch him again.

Then they ran.

They ran so fast that Kagome didn't have time to identify the next obstacle before she dodged it.

As she ran the world turned to sharp relief, the colors of the day melting away in brilliant blue light and deep black shadow Movement was the only language here. Move between the movement, fill in the shadows.

The wind snapped in her hair and plastered her ears to her scalp. It broke over her face and filled her head with the story of the nights' forest; the animals that scurried out of the way, the trees with their roots secure in the cool moist earth.

The earth! Kagome could feel it speak to her from the souls of her feet, she understood its purpose and composer as it caressed, hit, pricked, slipped, gave and crumbled from her touch.

Kagome leaped over a log and smiled as she landed on the other side without missing a step. She was wrapped in a glow of rapture at the feeling of her body pushing itself and finding strength never ending. Her muscles, her heart, her legs, her arms, her lungs; pounding, stretching, thrusting, singing joy into her soul and lightness into her step.

He ran her for hours, and it was past midnight when he decided to stop near a river to see how she was faring. She hadn't complained, but she could be stubborn sometimes. When he slowed to a stop she passed him by and ended up standing shin deep in the water.

She looked back at him, her starburst eyes glowing in the moonlight, her ears perked and head tilted curiously. She was breathing heavily, but not desperately. It was obvious that she had been straining herself to keep up with him but she didn't seem to be near stopping them herself.

InuYasha hadn't been straining himself, not like Kagome had, but if he had he wouldn't have lasted as long as she did, and she seemed to want to run farther.

"Why did you stop InuYasha?" she asked as she slowly waded back to the bank.

InuYasha just watched her in a state close to awe, no human could run like that for that long and ask for more. No human, but Kagome wasn't human anymore was she? She wasn't weak anymore, she wasn't slow, she wasn't dull. She was fast, and sharp… she was probably stronger too. She wasn't going to be vulnerable to every youkai that came near any-

Kagome let out a small screech when she slipped on a rock and fell into the cold water.

InuYasha sighed, she was just going to need a lot of training first.

"Oh," Kagome looked down at her pajamas, "I'm all wet."

"Get out of the water Kagome." InuYasha said flatly.

"They're my only pair." Kagome glared up at him.

"So?"

"So, I only have this and one uniform to wear!" Kagome stood angrily, "And I'm not sleeping in my uniform… It needs more modification anyway." She mumbled to herself, "rubs my tail wrong."

"Poor baby." InuYasha frowned at her.

Kagome glared back at InuYasha and walked up on the shore, "Some of us like to change our clothes sometimes, InuYasha. And what am I going to sleep in? I'm not sleeping naked, not with Miroku –"

"You're not wearing shoes." InuYasha scowled at her bare feet.

Kagome looked at her feet and frowned, "There wasn't time to put them on… I wanted to run with you."

"What if you cut your foot?" InuYasha scowled at her, "I'm-"

"Well, I didn't" Kagome stomped to InuYasha to stare directly up into his face, "_You_ never wear shoes anyway!"

"But I'm…" InuYasha's voice faded when he realized what he was about to say, "I know I can go bare foot, you don't know what you can do."

"I do now!" Kagome shouted at him.

They stood in silence for a moment, Kagome began to shake as the wind farther chilled the cool water on her clothes.

"Let's get back to camp." InuYasha stepped away and turned back the way they came, "I don't want you complaining about being tired tomorrow."

"… Give me your jacket." Kagome walked quickly behind him.

"No!" InuYasha continued to walk to camp.

"I'm cold." Kagome explained reasonably as she advanced on him, "If I get sick I'll do a lot more than complain and every one will do what I want and hate you for being so cruel."

"Youkai don't get sick. You can't have it. It was your own fault, deal with it." InuYasha walked faster.

"I'm not a youkai, I'm a hanyou, and we don't know anything about me yet." Kagome picked up her pace, "and I wouldn't be wet if you hadn't stopped me in the middle of a river! Now give!"

"I didn't-" InuYasha was interrupted when Kagome pounced on him from behind.

They tumbled to the ground flipped a couple of times, a testament to Kagome's new strength, before they stopped with him on his belly and Kagome on his back. She recovered quickly and started to tug on InuYasha's collar.

"Give it to me!" She trilled.

"No!" InuYasha flipped over, putting his back on the ground and tossing Kagome. He sat up to look at Kagome, wide eyed.

It didn't take her long to right herself and she pounced on him again, pushing him back to the ground. She straddled his stomach and gigged, "Give it to me InuYasha."

InuYasha's shocked expression faded to realization, he growled and lunged knocking Kagome to the ground and pinning her there with his body.

"Give it to me." Kagome pouted.

"No." InuYasha lowered his face to hers, until their noses almost touched, "You're not strong enough to take it."

Kagome gained footing and managed to half turn InuYasha and escaped, she clawed at his jacket trying to free it. InuYasha grabbed at her hands trying to prevent her from getting what she wanted and she dodged him. Many minutes passed where they clawed and dodged and even rolled on the ground some more before the night air turned bitter to Kagome's wet skin.

She once again gained the upper hand, sitting on InuYasha's stomach, and sat straight, her hands resting flat on his chest as he waited, a small grin on his face. She shivered in the wind and seemed to think for a moment. Wrestling was fun, but she was cold… it was time to change tactics.

"Well InuYasha, I'll tell you what." Kagome gave a long suffering sigh, "I may not get your jacket, but I'm not wearing this wet stuff anymore."

Kagome moved her hands to the hem of her pajama top and started to lift it off.

"WAIT!" InuYasha sat up, causing Kagome to slide into his lap, "You can't just… undress!"

"I can't wear cold wet clothes either." Kagome looked at him innocently, "I have to get out of them eventually."

"But not in front of me!" InuYasha hurriedly explained, "Here, you can have it, tonight."

InuYasha removed his jacket and handed it to Kagome, who was still in his lap. Kagome took it and wrapped it around herself happily, then pulled her soaked pajama top off under the fire rat jackets cover, and pushed her arms through the sleeves.

Kagome stood to make a few adjustments and removed the last of her wet clothes from under InuYasha's jacket. InuYasha hadn't moved, he just kept watching her.

She didn't notice him though, she stepped away and gathered her wet clothes then turned to him, "InuYasha, I think we should go back now." she yawned prettily, "I think I would like to go to sleep now."

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A/N: I want to thank both biggest anime fan and kale5 for reviewing last chapter… those on mediaminer, I'm giving you this one but my polosy is at least one review or I don't update. I don't see the point if no one likes it enough to type three words for it.

Biggest anime fan; Naraku? I'm sure he's around here somewhere, pulling himself together. The big question is how long it will take out heros to find him. /At this time I am unable to discuss the extent to which this story, or it's themes, are related to… any of my others, except to say that they were all started at the same time and take place in different universes. That is all. Nice observations though.

Kale5; nice review. It didn't give me much fodder for response so I normaly wouldn't comment, but I wanted to compliment the review.

Warning, recluse rants! Take with grain of salt.

Two general things I would like to say, first, As I said in another fic, my stories are solidly based on the universe that I created for them with the knowledge we had shortly after the first Kouga incident. I am saying this because, through no fault of their own, some people have been quoting new episodes and movies at me as some sort of proof or other about my fics. Two things that annoy me about that, 1. this is a fan fic. I'll just let that stand on its own. 2. You don't know what I've seen. I may be a manga person, they exist on this very site, some of them will only read the manga in the original Japanese (and more power to them). You also don't know what I have available to me. I may not have access to the moves. In fact I don't. I haven't had access to the series since I graduated from college a year ago. (I do have about the first 25 episodes in subbed Japanese thanks to a friend.) So stop it! And don't do it to anyone else either!

On to the second rant, well, more like advise. Please review in any way you like but when you catch a misspelling Don't Just Report the Misspelled Words! Especially if its in another language. That's hard and there isn't always consensus. It sounds… rude. I would like to point out that when someone misspells something important ten people before you have left the review "you misspelled " I'm sure that getting that many flames would be just as discouraging, but this is defiantly on the list of things that get you down. If your taking the time to point out a editing (I know they can be annoying) error please take the extra seconds to comment on the actual story, it takes the bite off what essentaily sounds like "you stupid , why are you such an idiot?"… But that may be my artistic temper speaking.

I'm don't want to discourage anyone, at all, but these things have been building since I first started writing. It was kind of fun. That said…

Please review! (smily deleted by site)


	16. Walking On Air

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 16: Walking on air

The dawn came too early for Kagome; far too early she was awoken by her own internal stirrings as the sky turned from black to… less black. She didn't get up though, she was far too comfortable, so she lay curled in her sleeping bag, snuggled in the scent of InuYasha and the slightly rough feel of fire rat fur against her skin, until the sun shone and her companions woke. Reluctantly she yawned, stretched and got out of her sleeping bag.

"Good morning Ka-" Sango paused as she caught sight of Kagome wearing InuYasha's jacket, "Kagome?"

"Good morning Sango… what's wrong?" Kagome asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Good morning Sango, Kagome, nice pajamas," Miroku returned to camp from the woods. InuYasha dropped to the ground next to Kagome and scowled at him, "InuYasha. I trust you had a nice run?"

InuYasha narrowed his eyes at Miroku, "Sure."

"I'm sure you did, but you should really have someone see to those scratches. I would suggest Kagome, but I wouldn't want to worsen your condition." Miroku said casually as he passed InuYasha on the way to the fire, "Or delay our departure."

InuYasha looked down to his chest which was only partially exposed to see several nearly healed pink lines running from his collar bone and disappearing under his shirt, "That's not what happened!" he yelled in frustration.

"What isn't what happened?" Miroku paused in stoking the fire to give him an innocent curious look.

"What you're thinking happened." InuYasha stumbled in his defense.

"I fell in the river." Kagome frowned at Miroku, "I had to take InuYasha's jacket or freeze."

"I gave you that jacket!" InuYasha turned to her.

"That's right," Kagome grinned slyly at him, "you did."

InuYasha blinked at her blankly. She tricked him? She tricked him into thinking it was his idea! Damn it! "Keh. Give it back now."

"All right, all right." Kagome stood and retrieved her uniform from her backpack, "keep your shirt on." She giggled as she skipped behind a tree.

"Keh." InuYasha pouted.

Soon Kagome came bounding out in her school uniform, "Thank you for loaning it to me, and thanks for the run." Kagome handed the jacket back to InuYasha and hopped up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to face the camp again. She froze on her way to the fire, a small blush forming on her shocked expression. What did she just do?

There was a short silence that Kagome wouldn't let mature into a comment. She spun around quickly and said, "Well, Don't stand there all day!" it was said far too brightly and the blush was still across her cheeks. "We have shards and people and villains to find. Get dressed InuYasha, you're slowing us down!" then she hopped merrily over to her sleeping bag.

"e-de- what!" InuYasha sputtered.

"Wait, Kagome!" Shippo bounded over to her, "don't forget about breakfast!"

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Sango walked next to Miroku at the rear of the group with Kirara, allowing the hanyou, and their youkai charges to walk several long paces ahead of them. Miroku was silently contemplating them as they walked and Sango watched him carefully.

His gaze slowly dropped lower then needed and Sango was quick to warn him of that, "Houshi-sama…"

"Sango, are Kagome's feet touching the ground?" Miroku asked, a thoughtful frown on his face.

Sango looked at the ground under Kagome's shoes and saw that her heals weren't quite touching it, but remained about an inch off the ground every time she put her foot down, "She's walking on her toes!" Sango exclaimed.

Miroku nodded, "Perhaps that's why she's moving so differently."

Sango looked at him from the corner of narrowed eyes, "How do you know how she moves?"

"Then again, perhaps it is all due to the change in her body. What's that Sango?" Miroku tore his eyes away from Kagome and looked at her, "Well, eh, we have been traveling together for some time, these things are inevitable. I'm sure you have noticed such things yourself." He answered nervously.

Sango huffed slightly and turned her attention back on Kagome. It was true that she moved differently. She had a bit more of a sway to her hips, hardly noticeable unless you knew her before, and a movement to her shoulders that together with the hips would be called sensuous. And yet, every now and then she would skip or jump, as if out of joy, and… just something about her brought the effect down to somewhere between sultry and cute.

Sango shook her head, she had been listening to Miroku too long, she shouldn't notice these things about other women. She gave Kagome another look anyway, trying to see what had distracted Miroku from Kagome's body. Her legs moved differently, probably because of the way she held her feet she led with her knee more. Again it was nothing dramatic, but it was the strangest part of her movement.

Sango shook her head again, how strange it must be for Kagome to suddenly be different down to the way she walked.

"I wonder what the movement of her tail means." Miroku said casually.

"What?" Sango turned to look at Miroku again, his head was tilted and his eyes were trained on what Sango could only hope was her tail.

"Look at the way it twirls and… flips as it moves from side to side while she walks." Miroku elaborated, "It would be interesting to know what that says about her."

"Stop looking at her tail before someone notices." Sango replied flatly and decided to change the subject, "We have a long way to go before we catch up to where we were."

"A few days, if we continue to travel straight." Miroku looked at the tree tops ahead of the group, "The road will bend away from our destination soon. If InuYasha chooses to leave it, we could be faced with unknown setbacks."

"Mn." Sango agreed, "But with the youkai in our party any setback should be fairly… Are you still thinking about her tail?"

"Ah, ha." Miroku rubbed the back of his head with his hand, "Certainly it is natural to be curious in this situation, our friend has just turned into a hanyou after all."

"InuYasha was always a hanyou." Sango commented flatly.

"But, when questioned about certain things, he is more likely to react with violence than to answer the question." Miroku explained, "With Kagome answers are likely to be attainable with little violence resulting, if one is tactful."

"Right." Sango shook her head and looked at the pair of hanyou's some distance ahead, "just don't let InuYasha catch you."

"Look at them Sango." Miroku gave them a calculating look, "Is there anything different about them today?"

"Kagome explained that-"

"No, not that, I was merely teasing them about last night." Miroku corrected quickly, "Look at how closely they are walking."

Sango looked again at their friends. They were walking closer to each other then they had been, so close that every now and then their arms would brush.

"Are they talking?" Sango asked in a hushed whisper.

"I don't think so." Miroku answered in kind, moving a little closer adding to the secrecy.

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Kagome smiled brightly as she squinted against the bright sun, her ears alert and her tail swishing from side to side in a merry, unconcerned fashion. As far as she was concerned the day was perfect.

InuYasha was also feeling up, though his thoughts centered more on last nights' run and wrestle than on the current day. He watched the memories as he stayed alert for trouble on the road, and didn't really think on either one. But something was pulling at him, he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but it put a small smile, barely noticeable, on his lips.

His arm brushed against Kagome's again.

Kagome smiled and looked down at Hitomi, asleep in her arms.

"How's Shippo doing?" she asked quietly.

Shippo was draped over InuYasha's shoulder, fast asleep.

"Keh, what daya think?" InuYasha tried to stay gruff, "All kits do is eat, sleep and cause trouble."

"Hmm." Kagome responded distractedly. Her eyes were closed and her head tilted up and InuYasha could tell she was scenting the air. She was listening at the same time, her ears perked and swiveling slowly, taking in the sounds of the day.

He watched in wonder for a while before coming to a decision, "Hey, bi-k-Kagome."

"Hmm?" Kagome opened her eyes slightly and turned her head toward him.

InuYasha was scowling now. He couldn't call her a bitch anymore, any idiot knows that bitches and vixens were different.

"We're stopping." He announced, "We're going hunting."

"Hunting?" Kagome cocked her head at him curiously.

An indignant cry and sharp slap from behind drew Kagome's attention.

InuYasha called back to the pained monk and the angry youkai exterminator, "Hey, we're stopping for lunch."

The humans started in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Miroku asked looking from InuYasha to Kagome.

"Nothings wrong." InuYasha took Hitomi from Kagome and handed her to Miroku, "You guys are on your own. I'm taking Kagome and Shippo hunting."

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Kagome sat on her heels, knees apart with her hands on the ground between them, next to Shippo in a bare spot in the brush too small to be called a clearing. They waited with curious expressions for InuYasha to do… something. He was just crouching on the ground, his arms resting on his knees, looking deeper into the woods, ears alert, eyes dark with concentration.

Kagome had been unable to recognize the scent InuYasha tried to get her to follow but Shippo had caught it quickly, pointing out that Kagome hadn't been exposed to any prey scents since her transformation.

In the end InuYasha had been the one to track the scent this far and now he had to decide how to continue.

"Hey, Kagome." InuYasha made a motion that she should follow him and crept into the bushes.

Kagome followed him on her hands and toes as quietly as she could. Her heart was beating so loud she was sure that it would alert any prey before she arrived. It wasn't long before InuYasha stopped and drew her to his side with a motion.

Silently, she maneuvered her way to crouch beside him and peered through the foliage. There in another almost clearing she saw a rabbit, nibbling blissfully unaware on a patch of grass.

"See him?" InuYasha whispered, the rabbit didn't notice. Kagome nodded, "We're close enough now. You can pounce on him from here."

Kagome turned to look at InuYasha, "pounce?" she mouthed silently.

InuYasha gave a harsh nod, "follow your instincts."

Kagome looked back to the unsuspecting prey and flexed her claws. Startled by a strange feeling she raised one hand to her face and repeated the action. Her dainty little claws went from duller then she remembered them being to longer and sharper and even stronger looking, and then back as she flexed and relaxed her hand.

InuYasha nudged her roughly to get her back on track, then backed away slightly as she turned back to the prey.

'Follow my instincts huh?' Kagome thought as she considered the rabbit. She definitely had an instinctive pull in the back of her mind, but it took her a while to figure out what it was saying.

InuYasha watched as Kagome slowly backed up and turned around crawling away from the rabbit, which was still unaware of their presence. Scowling, he moved to follow her.

"What the hell are you doing?" he whispered harshly.

"You told me to follow my instincts." Kagome replied in a clipped whisper.

"So? Get-" InuYasha was interrupted as Kagome stopped and sat up from her crawl, causing InuYasha to do the same or run into her. The back of her shoulder touched the front of his and she turned her head, looking up at him, her eyes wide and almost expectant.

"My instincts told me to find a big strong male to kill the cute furry creature and bring it back to me." She blinked innocently at him.

"Yep," Shippo nodded sagely, apparently she had led them back to the kit, "she's a vixen alright."

InuYasha rolled his eyes and scowled at the kit while he edged away from the vixen, "Vixens can hunt." He stated.

"I can fish." Kagome announced as if from deep thought, "Fishing I'll do."

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Kagome returned to the others while InuYasha was out teaching Shippo, but she didn't join them. Instead she lurked in the bushes just outside of camp, observing them. They ate a cold lunch without a fire.

"Pst, Hitomi." She hissed quietly, "Over here."

The blind kit raised her head and turned toward her. Hitomi carefully stuffed the rest of the food in her mouth and toddled over to her. Kagome reached out and pulled her into cover.

"InuYasha tried to teach me to hunt." Kagome said, "I knew what I was supposed to do, but I couldn't."

Hitomi listened and nodded, "Destiny says that your age and relationship to InuYasha makes you think he should be hunting for you."

"What relationship?" Kagome tilted her head in confusion.

Hitomi shrugged, "Destiny says you don't think he should be asking you to hunt at this point."

"What?" Kagome sat back, completely lost, "I don't understand… InuYasha's just my-"

"Kagome!" Kagome spun around at the sound of Shippo's voice, "I caught a bird!" Shippo had a big smile on his face and a bird almost as large as him in front of him.

"Shippo! Don't scare me like that!" Kagome sagged in relief, "Um that's a nice bird Shippo, but what happened to the rabbit?"

Shippo shrugged. "InuYasha wants you to come back. Come on Hitomi; I'll share my bird with you."

"Ok Shippo." Hitomi scrambled around Kagome and ran face first into Shippo's bird, "Ew."

Shippo freed one hand by heaving the carcass over his shoulder and taking her hand in his, "This way." He said as he led the way back.

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A/N: Ah the foreshadowing, its light, but it's there. And about the kiss, or rather Kagomes reaction to it, I know some of you will be thinking that I forgot about all those kisses in A Taste of Power, trust me I didn't and I know what I'm doing.

Chinese-freak- the three fates, strange? Yes, but Sorrell was modeled after a Greek look. So they sort of fit. Thanks for the review.

chibi moon baby- we haven't seen the end of the "dark" just yet, but neither is it the end of fluff.

notzathros- Thank you for reviewing, and such a nice one too. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

biggest anime fan- I don't know why this story isn't reviewed much… those that do review tend to be very happy about it.

Lady of Imladris- Punctuation problems? I wonder if you're referring to my irrational aversion of the semi-colon, or my war with the apostrophe. I can never remember when it goes before or after the "s" in some words. I'm a work in progress and I'll admit it. Thanks for the review, I'll keep it in mind when editing.

Thanks again to everyone that reviewed.


	17. Shadow of Doubt

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 17: Shadow of Doubt

As Kagome crawled into the small area that she, InuYasha and Shippo had gathered to hunt, InuYasha was just sticking something in his jacket. A pile of bloody meat was directly in front of him on a piece of clean bark which partially hid a scorched spot on the earth.

InuYasha glanced at her when she crawled up, "I told you to wait here."

"I just went back to camp." Kagome pouted cutely at him from under her eyelashes as she sat up next to him, "What are you doing?"

InuYasha ignored her and pushed the bark plate between them, "Eat up."

"Yeah!" Shippo dropped his bird and Hitomi's hand and scuttled to the plate, only to be knocked back.

"Not you," InuYasha scowled, "eat your bird, this is for Kagome."

"What!" Shippo stood up, "After I helped you-"

"Shut up!" InuYasha interrupted, "Or you won't even get to eat that."

"What is that?" Kagome looked dubiously at the raw flesh she was supposed to eat.

"Rabbit." InuYasha said shortly and stuffed a large piece in his mouth, "It's good."

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Kagome frowned thoughtfully, "Can I eat that raw?"

InuYasha shrugged and licked his fingers.

Hesitantly, Kagome picked up a piece of the offered meat. It smelled like food. Kagome licked at it. It tasted like food, good food. Healthy food. _Delicious_ food. She ate it quickly. The tough wild meat was no match for her sharp teeth, and while she took small bites, she didn't seem to bother to chew them. Soon the bark platter was empty and she was daintily licking the remains from her outstretched fingers.

InuYasha was reclining against a tree with one arm resting on his bent knee as he watched Kagome. After her initial hesitance she took to eating her meat raw well. She even seemed to enjoy it.

"Messy." Kagome muttered. She was holding her hands in front of her looking at them with a small frown.

"Keh," InuYasha commented, a small smirk trying to make itself known on his face, "that's nothing. Look at the kits."

Shippo and Hitomi were sprawled in a mess of feathers snoring contentedly, half their faces and all of their hands colored red.

"It looks like the bird exploded on them." Kagome blinked. She was a little concerned that the scene wasn't at all disturbing to her… actually, it was sort of endearing.

"No, it doesn't." InuYasha stood and looked up, trying to gauge the time through the canopy.

"We need to get washed up." Kagome said as she gently woke the kits.

InuYasha nodded and lead them down to the river. He watched silently as Kagome directed Shippo on cleaning spots he had missed and helped Hitomi to keep her clothes dry.

"Don't think I forgot about you InuYasha." Kagome said as she scrubbed Shippo's ear with a handkerchief, "You wash up too."

"I don't need to." InuYasha crossed his arms in defiance.

"I can smell it on you." Kagome frowned at him, "Come on InuYasha, it won't kill you to wash your hands."

"Keh." InuYasha said, but he kneeled next to her and rinsed his hands in the river. Suddenly he was pushed into the water by two small hands on his shoulders.

He came up sputtering and glared at the person who dared pull such a trick on him. Kagome stood where he had been, feet firmly apart, grinning triumphantly.

But Kagome was one step ahead of him, and before he recovered shouted, "Run kids!"

And they were off!

InuYasha was just behind them, dripping wet and spouting curses. But it wasn't far back to the others and Hitomi and Shippo took safety in the arms of Miroku and Sango… blurting out the story in delight.

Kagome, the reason for his state, was behind them on the road. She held one claw sheepishly between her teeth and her eyes were wide in contrition, but there was a mischievous glint in those starburst jewels that made InuYasha growl.

He jumped over the humans and wrapped his arms around Kagome's waist, capturing her from behind, pulling her off her feet and swinging her around. He leaned them over slightly, his wet hair falling around them and he shook his head lightly getting an indignant cry out of Kagome.

"InuYasha! You're getting me wet!" Kagome wriggled in his arms and pulled at his hands.

"Keh!" InuYasha smirked as he let her go.

She backed several long steps away from him, rubbing her neck where InuYasha had placed his head, a strange look crossed her face and she gave him a half hearted, "Jerk."

"Served you right." InuYasha crossed his arms and never lost his smirk.

Kagome wrinkled her nose and turned back to the road, "I hope my clothes dry before we have to stop and camp."

"Keh."

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"There's a village ahead." Kagome announced, looking very pleased with herself, "I can smell it."

InuYasha huffed and nodded curtly.

"It's going to rain tonight." She glanced slyly at him from the corner of her eye.

"Keh." InuYasha replied.

"What does a village smell like Kagome?" Sango asked carefully. She wasn't sure how, or if, she should ask these questions.

Kagome paused and donned a thoughtful expression, "Like… waste."

"Eh, waste?" Sango asked, shocked.

Kagome nodded, "But not really in a bad way, exactly. There's just an awful lot of decay and sweat and…. It just smells like people, in one place for a while."

"Waste, decay, and sweat, but not bad." Sango repeated slowly, "… how is that not bad?"

"I don't know, it's just the way I smell now. It's different." Kagome explained as they reached the top of a small hill and the anticipated village was revealed to them, "Look at that village. When you see it, as a traveler, you see fields and recognize the path through them that we must take. You see the modest number of houses and their simple construction and realize that there is likely no inn here. You see the people working and can tell that they are basically healthy and relatively content, so we won't likely be turned away outright. Do you see that Sango?"

"Yes." Sango looked over the peaceful scene as Kagome spoke.

"Now step back, look at it like you weren't a seasoned traveler, just someone coming home. Then it's just a pretty picture." Kagome smiled thoughtfully, "If I put a flower to my nose, I get dizzy, but I can enjoy a meadow full of them without ever even stooping down."

"But I don't see decay or waste Kagome," Sango continued, "how does that not distract from the picture?"

"It's not bad waste it's…just… information. I smell like you see." Kagome put a hand to her forehead and her animal features disappeared leaving only slight change of her features and pearlescent completion, "How do I look?"

"Cute." InuYasha scowled at her.

"Who asked you?" Kagome yelled before she turned and stomped down the hill toward the village.

InuYasha narrowed his eyes at her back and joined the rest in catching up to her. She looked too damn attractive now. It's not like she wasn't pretty before, but now she was… more. And she had this strange aura that attracted people to her. Even the men at Keades village had begun to notice her again. She was too cute; looking cute would mean people… men, would assume she was silly and harmless. And her unconsciously flirtatious movements would encourage them. He'd have to keep an eye on her. She may not be as gullible as she seemed, but she was too eager to trust.

When they reached the village they were first met with wary glances at InuYasha, then smiles as Kagome, now emitting happiness drew the attention from the rest of them. The reaction was nearly immediate. Every man stopped working to watch her pass by. InuYasha bared his teeth at the few that let their eyes linger and pushed his hands farther up his sleeves, but remained silent.

Miroku took the lead, as was the habit, so that he could introduce them to the villagers and locate the head man.

"It's that horrible hawk that's done it." A group of old men were engrossed in a conversation as they passed, "Junji says that it's suddenly got bigger and started picking off the live stock. Not like we have much to spare."

"Excuse me, sir." Kagome stepped away from her group and walked up to them, "You said it suddenly got more powerful?"

"Yeah… uh," the men turned to look at her, "…what?"

"The hawk?" Kagome blinked her big brown eyes at them innocently, "Where is it?"

"It, uh, flies around." The man responded.

InuYasha growled and pushed Kagome behind him.

"Hey!" She squeaked.

InuYasha ignored her, "Where does it hunt?" he snarled, making sure to show his fangs.

"It comes from the north, in the mornings, early." The man gulped and stumbled back a few steps, "It goes where the food is."

InuYasha narrowed his eyes before swinging away and storming back to the others with Kagome's wrist held tightly in his hand.

"Hey!" Kagome cried indignantly, stumbling behind him, "let go!"

"Stay with the group _Kagome_." InuYasha growled as he flung her into Sango, "That's what Miroku's for."

She caught Kagome and lifted her back onto her feet, "InuYasha, you're drawing attention to us." Sango hissed.

Around them the villagers began to gather, measuring what was going on, deciding what they should do, how they should do it.

Kagome looked up at him, unsure whether to be angry or hurt, "My wrist hurts." She pouted holding her injured wrist to her. To the outsiders, those not sensitive enough to sense her anger, she was absolutely the victim, a dainty maiden manhandled by a brutish youkai.

"Kagome," Miroku started, sensing the tension that was quickly manifesting in the crowd.

InuYasha rolled his eyes and interrupted Miroku, "You'll have to be tougher than that now _vixen_. Open you eyes and stop being so fucking naive."

Anger rose quickly in Kagome, her dainty growl rolled in the back of her throat, "Shut up!" she stomped her foot and shook her head, "I'm not naive, I'm not stupid and I'm not weak!"

"Keh!" InuYasha scowled at her, "Stop screeching. If you can't see what you're doing then you're blind and stupid. No matter what your 'school' says."

Kagome lost all control and leaped at InuYasha snarling, with her claws extended. As she landed on him and knocked him to the ground, her illusion faded revealing her true form to the stunned audience.

InuYasha caught her hands as they tumbled back and managed to keep her from clawing him, or "shocking" him with the miko energy crackling from the tips of her claws.

Whispers of "Kitsune" spread throughout the crowd and Miroku sighed as Kagome moved to claw at InuYasha's eyes.

"Please, kind villagers, forgive our spirited friends. I assure you they are… tame enough. This is simply a lovers tiff." He explained matter-of-factly.

"Hey!" Kagome called to him indignantly.

"Who you callin' tame buzo?" InuYasha was now sitting up with Kagome slightly suspended over his lap by her wrists, which he held in one hand.

Miroku was unfazed, the villagers were listening to him, "We are traveling youkai slayers searching out recently powerful youkai that have begun to pester human settlements, and defeating them… for a moderate fee."

Sango groaned as Miroku continued his pitch, but walked to her friends to remind Kagome and InuYasha exactly how what they were doing looked. Shippo and Hitomi just laughed.

Miroku managed to talk them out of a dangerous situation and into a place to sleep for the night. It helped that Kagome glared at InuYasha for the rest of the night causing most of the men to see InuYasha in a more sympathetic light. And Kagome herself seemed to make people want to trust her.

Miroku was concerned by that whole incident however. Kagome becoming a hanyou had dwindled the number of humans in the group to two. It was easy to get people to overlook Kirara and Shippo, as small things were never seen as much of a danger, but InuYasha had only been tolerated so well because of the three powerful anti-youkai humans traveling with him. Once they were alone in their room for the night Miroku brought this up.

Sango nodded, "And how can we explain that Kagome is a powerful miko when she is clearly a youkai."

"Hanyou." InuYasha spat.

"I wouldn't have been found out if InuYasha hadn't been such a jerk." Kagome muttered.

"That was uncalled for InuYasha," Miroku agreed, "Kagome wasn't in any danger from those old men. But, Kagome, you need to rein in this new temper of yours."

"It's not new." Kagome disagreed, "I've always had it. I just usually subdue him instead of..."

"Pouncing on him?" Shippo smiled broadly and Hitomi giggled.

Kagome glared at the kits while a blush spread across her face.

Miroku cleared his throat. "However that is, if you are going to continue to try to appear human while we are in villages, you will need to make more of an effort to hold your illusion."

Kagome stopped glaring and her blush dissipated as she gazed blankly at the floor, "I'll try Miroku." she said, then thought sadly, 'try to appear human.' She smiled brightly at her friends, "I'll just have to remember to subdue InuYasha more!"

"Keh."

Miroku smiled mildly, "I think we should turn in for the night, we have to get up early to hunt that hawk."

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Kagome lay on her side under the covers with the kits curled tightly against her stomach, above the covers. Her hand ran lightly across one small head and then the next as they slept.

"Kagome-sama?" Hitomi blinked blearily, "You can't sleep?"

"…No." Kagome answered quietly. She didn't want to admit it but she was uneasy in this strange house with its strange smells and sounds, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't." Hitomi lied and sat up, sniffing. She frowned, "Why is InuYasha way over there? Are you that mad?"

"Keh," InuYasha expounded quietly, "go back to sleep."

"But, if you lay down next to Kagome," Hitomi pulled herself around to face him over Kagome's waist, "so you can feel her heartbeat, you'll both sleep. Destiny says you'll even take turns on watch." She added suddenly.

"What?" InuYasha asked, he had never heard of this before.

"Destiny says its instinct," Hitomi explained, "one sleeps while the other listens and rests then they switch. Unless you're in a den… but this isn't a proper den." Hitomi paused then asked in confusion, "Don't you want to sleep with Kagome? Don't you trust her?"

InuYasha wouldn't have known what to say even if he hadn't noticed Kagome's back stiffen at Hitomi's words.

"No." Kagome said, sounding almost sad, "He shouldn't sleep with me. It's OK, I'm not tired anyway." She pulled Hitomi back to her spot on the futon, "But you are, sleep."

InuYasha frowned at Kagome's back, uncertain what her comments meant, wondering what she was thinking. He thought about it all night as he leaned against the wall watching Kagome curled around the kits, all night awake… and silent.

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A/N: Action? Is that in this story? Well, yes, and as you can guess it will begin next chapter. Sorry it has taken so long but things had to be taken care of. And there is so much to keep track of with Sorrell and Kohaku, the continuing development of Kagome and her and InuYasha's relationship, the jewel shards and everything (and everyone) that goes with that and it's all happening at once and I get blocked as everything tries to come out at once. Not to mention the stuff that you aren't even aware of, but that's far in the future for now. Gah! The future! I forgot about the future! When is Kagome going to have the time to go home? Where's my outline….

Biggest anime fan; Wow, thanks for the glowing review. The animal stuff, yeah I love them and I do a lot of research for all of my stories and when I decided to turn Kagome into a vixen I tried to find out information about Japanese foxes and Kitsune legends…. I found nothing on any kind of real Japanese animals, at all! So Kagome is based on the red fox. But I did find a couple old stories about Kitsune youkai that I've use to make form her appearance others reactions to her (along with another anime). Of course I did take _some_ artistic license.

Priest: It's good to see you again. As for Kouga, he's here in the next three maybe four chapters. Maybe.

ChrisKaz958: Wow that's a lot of questions, all that will be revealed in the story so keep reading.

Cursed jax, Taeniaea, inuficcrzy, Lady of Imladris, nadeshiko-10, thanks for your wonderful reviews, and feedback! Feedback is always good.


	18. The Chase

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Also please remember, all my stories take place around the time of Kouga's first appearance.

Chapter 18: The Chase

Kagome's knees bounced with the effort of staying still as she crouched over the sleeping Sango, keeping balance with the tips of her fingers on the wooden floor. The rain Kagome had predicted had come and gone, a light sprinkling just enough and long enough to soak the unfortunate camper.

"If she wakes up with you like that she'll hurt you." InuYasha stated quietly.

"She won't hurt me." Kagome whispered, but she sat up anyway.

"So you meant to smack me then?" InuYasha scowled.

"What?" She turned and glanced at him over her shoulder before frowning at the human again, "Oh that was ages ago InuYasha." She stood up and moved to sit next to him.

"How long do we have to wait?" she sighed, stealing a look at Miroku.

InuYasha let out a long suffering sigh, "A while Kagome."

"I'm soooo bored!" She groaned and folded over, letting her head hit the floor with a hollow thunk sound. Suddenly she bolted upright and looked at InuYasha hopefully, "Can we run?"

"This close to a town? And leave them unguarded?" InuYasha huffed.

"… Wrestle?"

"That would wake them up."

"So does talking." Sango glared at them as she sat up, "How long?" she asked InuYasha.

He rolled his eyes, "A while."

Sango squinted at the dark sky out the window, "We could get there early, check out the territory. Be prepared for once."

Kagome trotted over to Miroku on her hands and toes, she leaned down on her elbows next to his head and whispered, "Wake up sweet monk, there isn't much time for fun before the sun reveals us."

Miroku cracked his eye open and gave Kagome a sardonic look, "Go sit next to InuYasha." He said, and rolled over.

Kagome sat back on her heels and pouted at his back, "I'll just have to entertain myself some other way…. I wonder how high you would jump if I put my claws-"

Miroku sat up and turned eyeing Kagome unhappily, "You are a cruel vixen Kagome."

Kagome blinked her large eyes at him innocently, but couldn't hide a small grin.

Sango yawned and blinked blearily at the horizon, the pale light of dawn through the dispersing clouds did nothing to warm her chill arms or replace the hours of sleep that Kagome's restlessness took. Long before InuYasha and Kagome began to talk, the vixen's unease with the unfamiliar dwelling grated against Sango's warrior instinct, making her sleep lighter then she would have with InuYasha's steady alertness.

Shippo and Hitomi were huddled together under a bush and nearly behind a tree, "I can't see anything." Shippo complained, "Why did we have to come if you were just going to stick us back here?"

"Would you rather be bait?" InuYasha called back.

"You have to keep Hitomi safe from the Hawk." Kagome added.

"How'd I get stuck babysitting?" Shippo pouted.

"Hey!" Hitomi exclaimed, "I can take care of myself just fine."

"Keh." Shippo finished.

Kagome hid her giggles behind her hand, InuYasha just rolled his eyes, "The sun's rising." He stated.

Everyone looked to the east to see the light of morning growing brighter and warmer. The distant cry of a hawk sounded from the mountain.

InuYasha's ears swiveled and perked, "It's coming."

"It has a shard." Kagome's grip tightened around her bow and she squinted into the brightening sky. This was her first battle since the transformation, and she suddenly wished she had taken time to practice with her bow.

The shadow of a great bird rose from the mountain and headed their way.

"Keh, this'll be easy." InuYasha snorted.

"It's huge!" Shippo exclaimed.

"It's passing by!" Sango called as she started after it.

"Kagome!" InuYasha yelled and followed the creature.

"Uh, the shard," Kagome fumbled in her nervousness, "it's in its back, between its wings!"

"Stop flying and pay attention!" Sango threw her hiraikotsu, trying to head it off before it reached the village, yanking several tail feathers loose.

The hawk dove to avoid the weapon and turned to face its attacker. It swooped low over them, forcing them down before hovering to survey them at a small distance.

Sango caught her hiraikotsu and prepared to attack again when InuYasha jumped and struck at the dodging youkai.

It screeched as its wing was severed from its body and Sango, seeing that it would fall on the group yelled, "Kagome! Shoot it now!"

The group was forced to scatter as the wounded youkai hit the ground heavily, thrashing its one good wing and tail in an attempt to right itself.

"Kagome!" InuYasha shouted angrily. An arrow from her could have dissipated the youkai's body before it reached them.

"Just finish it off InuYasha!" she screamed her answer over the quickly recovering foe.

It was an easy matter for him to dispatch the grounded bird, and he growled as he sheathed his sword, "What the hell was that Kagome?" he turned to her as she walked sheepishly toward the rest of the group, head bowed and gripping her bow tightly.

"I'm sorry!" she cried in frustration as she brought her gleaming starburst eyes up to meet his, but what InuYasha noticed immediately was the long cut from her temple to her chin, "I tried to shoot, but it broke!" she presented the group with her bow, the string neatly sliced in two, "I think it caught on my claw." She whimpered, her face scrunching worried sadness.

, "Stuff like that happens." InuYasha said quietly, his face neutral, "Don't let it bother you."

"But…" Kagome blinked at him in confusion, "we could have been hurt. I failed to do my part."

InuYasha stepped forward, putting his hand on her shoulder, "We weren't hurt, you're still getting used to things. We should have known better then to count on you in battle right now."

"But…"

InuYasha scowled, "You're bleeding on your shirt."

Kagome's shirt was cut along the front of the shoulder and along the side of her breast, under which was another long thin bleeding wound.

"Kagome, we need you to get the shard now." Sango broke in on the unusual scene when the youkai began to reassemble itself.

Kagome nodded and retrieved the shard quickly before trotting away toward the village.

"This is so weird." Shippo stated quietly from Miroku's shoulder as they watched her.

"Not so weird." Hitomi frowned thoughtfully as she walked up next to Sango.

"You don't know InuYasha." Shippo leaned slightly so that he could see the blind kit, "He should have yelled at her and… not touched her."

"Why wouldn't he touch her?" Hitomi asked.

"InuYasha is not one to initiate physical contact, usually." Miroku stated, "However, he is one to yell in these situations. His understanding is … strange."

InuYasha gave them an annoyed look as he grabbed Kagome's bag and turned back to her, "Hey, aren't ya forgetting something?" he said as he walked toward her.

Kagome turned to give him a blank look, "Oh." She smiled, "My bag, thanks InuYasha." She held out her arm to retrieve it as he came to a halt near her.

InuYasha frowned, "You're wounded, you need to be taken care of."

Kagome frowned in return, "I don't need you taking care of me."

"You're bleeding!" InuYasha raised his voice.

"Not anymore!" Kagome yelled, "It's nothing that can't wait."

"You're not going back to the village like that!" InuYasha yelled back.

"I can do anything I want to do!" Kagome shouted, showing her teeth.

Miroku decided to risk interceding, "Your shirt is ripped Kagome." He paused when the vixen looked at him, but continued when her mouth closed with an audible click, "We crossed a stream on the way here, perhaps you could take the opportunity to wash off the blood and change."

Kagome nodded, somewhat petulantly and the group continued back toward the village, stopping once they reached the stream. Kagome and Sango headed off the path and followed the water around a bush.

Kagome quickly removed her shirt and growled softly as she cleaned her cuts, which were only pink lines now.

"Eh, Kagome." Sango looked up from Kagome's bag, "Where are your other clothes?"

"There aren't any," Kagome groused, "I'll just glamour the cut out of this one for now."

"But I thought…"

"I packed spares but they fall to pieces." Kagome explained as she carefully pulled her shirt back on, "I know it's my claws, but my clothes don't fit right, they fall apart… I know it's silly but, it feels like I'm being rejected."

"Kagome," Sango started empathetically.

"Don't-" Kagome snapped before taking a deep breath, "It's silly. Don't worry about it. I just need to put more work in on making them fit. I never realized what a pain a tail can be." She finished lightly.

The chore didn't take them long and Kagome easily put up an illusion of clean new clothes before they joined the others. They were silent as they made the trip back to the village, Kagome didn't bother trying to look human this time. Miroku retrieved the reward from the headman and offered them some lunch before they headed out again.

"We are officially farther than we were before we had to return to Keades." Miroku stated as they leaned over a rough map of the area surrounding the village, "Sorrell did not come to this village, but one of the children saw a youkai that could have been Sorrell heading north toward the road that skirts the mountain."

"That road heads west through a low pass farther up." Sango added.

"Isn't that where we think Naraku's hiding out?" Shippo spoke up.

"It's the only part of the mountains we haven't searched yet." InuYasha said quietly, "but he's slippery, he just keeps moving so… who knows."

"Sorrell was after Naraku, right?" Kagome asked brightly, "So it makes sense that she would head straight for him."

"So the question is," Miroku took the conversation back, "Did Sorrell keep to the road and head west through and around the mountains, or did she leave the road continuing north and east into them."

"And did Kohaku continue to follow her all that way?" Shippo added.

Sango frowned, "I don't think there are any villages between here and the other side of the pass along that road." She looked at Miroku for conformation and he nodded.

"There _is_ a village a few days travel once you traverse the mountains, but it is a few days still before we would even reach the pass. And there is no guarantee that either Kohaku or Sorrell would have encountered any of the villagers if they did go that way." Miroku sighed. The thinning of the population that occurred as you approached these mountains had always hindered their search for Naraku in just this way.

The truth was Sorrell could have turned away at any time in any direction after being seen, and Kohaku had not been seen this time at all. The child, however, had wisely not stood around waiting to be noticed after seeing the youkai woman. Still the search for Kohaku was all but futile and, if it was not also wrapped up in the search for Naraku and the jewel shards, it would likely be wiser for Sango to come to terms with the fact that she might never see her brother again, even if he was still alive and free. But as they were looking, they might as well look for him. Miroku just wondered how long Sango could hold on to this hope before it broke her.

The day's journey had been dull and camp made too soon after they had started for InuYasha's tastes. Kagome had begun to understand InuYasha's reluctance to stop once they were moving, she was just getting her second wind as the sun set and the humans were cooling down. Dinner was made and cleaned up after and Sango and Miroku lounging drowsily by the fire. But Kagome sat on her sleeping bag wide awake and looking for trouble.

InuYasha knew it too. She was sitting on her heels, her hands flat on the fabric between her knees, ears forward sharply, head tilted, and she was looking at him contemplatively.

Kagome jumped up, startling everyone, and trotted up to resume her previous positing next to InuYasha, "Can I borrow your jacket?" she asked easily.

"No." answered as he leaned away from her slightly, on guard in case she attacked. You can't trust a vixen's motives, and you certainly can't predict their actions.

"You let me borrow it the other night." She leaned forward slightly and spoke softly, as if trying to keep their conversation from the others.

InuYasha leaned back a bit more, "You were wet." He replied cautiously.

"I could be wet tonight." She grinned and leaned farther in, her eyes half closed, "I like to sleep in your clothes InuYasha, I like the feeling of something rough against my skin as I sleep." She ran one hand along the hem of his jacket at his chest, "Your wonderful scent surrounding, protecting me. I want it InuYasha, why won't you give it to me."

He opened and closed his mouth a couple times before settling on, "You're not strong enough to take it." A lame echo from that first night but his experience didn't give him a retort for this situation.

She frowned and backed up a bit, her hand still clutching the firerat between them, "Strength isn't everything InuYasha." With that she lunged forward, knocking him over with her body, then ran on hands and toes over his body, stopping to crouch a few feet away.

It took him a second to realize she had his jacket now. How she had managed that he wasn't sure, must have been a kitsune trick of some sort. What surprised him was she hadn't kept running, or returned triumphant to her sleeping bag. Instead, as he rolled over to look at her, she stood on her toes and the tips of her fingers, holding his firerat jacket high in the other hand, grinning at him.

"How's my strength now InuYasha?" she moved into a proper crouch waiting for him to make his move.

InuYasha grinned back, if she wanted a chase she could have just asked for one. He didn't bother to stand before pouncing for her. As he expected, she wasn't there when he landed. He followed her in a flash, into the quickly darkening woods.

"NO!" Shippo jumped up and shouted, "InuYasha stop, Kagome come back." There was no hope of him catching up to them.

"It's alright Shippo." Hitomi reassured him, "Destiny says Kagome always listens."

"Maybe," Shippo pouted, "but I bet Destiny doesn't listen to me."

Kagome laughed as she ran and dodged through the gathering night now wearing InuYasha's jacket. It was exhilarating, being chased like prey, but knowing that the hunter wouldn't hurt her when he caught her. Of course InuYasha would catch her, the game had to end eventually and he was the more experienced, and faster, of them.

Still she ran as though she wanted to lose him, and it was over an hour of tricky moves at the speed of sight before she heard him jump, she tried to stop, duck and change directions but this time he had anticipated her move and she was snatched off the ground by a hand around her waist.

InuYasha had caught her and pulled her with him through the air until they landed, on his back, and tumbled, losing speed until he could stop them. He growled down at Kagome and she responded with her own vulpine trill of a growl. That cute little thing just made him want to bite…

He didn't stop growling even when he leaned down to kiss her. She wrapped her hands, enclosed in his Firerat sleeves, around his shoulders and nipped at his lips while she pulled him closer, pushing her body into his, trilling deep in her throat. His growl vibrating through her, thrilling her.

He groaned as the kiss changed, deep and passionate, that wonderful trill/growl calling him on. InuYasha moved one hand to rest at her waist, where her uniform shirt pulled away from her skirt.

When his hand touched her skin, Kagome's eyes shot open and she suddenly pushed him away, shouting "NO!" She skittered to one side before jumping up and pacing back and forth in front of him, chanting "no no no no" one arm wrapped around her stomach, the other hand pressed to her mouth, still hidden in the billowing sleeve.

"Wha-" InuYasha blinked at her trying to understand what had just happened.

"We can't do this InuYasha," Kagome said without looking at him.

"Why not?" He sat up, still disoriented from the sudden shift.

"I'm not playing that game." She continued, clearly not hearing him, "I'm not letting you choose me now, you always go easy on the weakest, you always choose the one that needs your protection more. I'm not letting you hold me now and go back to Kikyou after you think I've become strong again." Her eyes were wide and tears were gathering quickly.

"I'm not changing my mind Kagome," InuYasha scowled, "I always-"

"No! No no no NO!" Kagome stopped and lifted her hands to her head where her ears used to be, "You can't mean that! If you mean that, that means you love me and you _can't_ love me! You love Kikyo!"

"Kag-"

"You have to love Kikyo!" Kagome insisted tears falling heavily from her tightly closed eyes, "You have to love her more than you love me. That's the way it's supposed to be, that's the way it makes sense! You can't love me because it wouldn't hurt so bad if you did, you're not a monster InuYasha. You wouldn't hurt me like this unless you were a monster, and I won't let you be a monster. This didn't happen. We're friends, just-"

"Shut up! Stop crying and listen to me!" InuYasha stood up.

"NO! no no _NO_!" Kagome turned and ran.

InuYasha cursed and started after her when he realized that she wasn't running toward camp, but she had tossed energy behind her, instinctively calling vines from the ground. They wrapped themselves around his arms and legs, and when he tried to pull free calling Kagome's name, he was shocked by the powerful miko energy that had summoned them, and blacked out.

AN: I know it's been a while, but I don't want to take the space here to discuss anything, but I am sorry it's taken this long. Please enjoy and review. Thanks.


	19. Confusion

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 19: Confusion

InuYasha woke up suffering from a headache and feeling week. The sky was showing signs that the morning was not far off, and he cursed hoarsely. He didn't need to check to know that he was human, purified by Kagome's illusionary vines. He tried to stand, only to fall and retch dryly. He stood unsteadily and started to stumble in the direction that Kagome had taken, towards the mountain.

"InuYasha!" Miroku's voice called behind him, "InuYasha wait! ... InuYasha is that you?"

InuYasha gave a short growl and turned to face the group, "What do you want?"

Miroku paused, taking in the situation, "We… had a feeling something was wrong when you did not return."

InuYasha narrowed his eyes, he wasn't sure if Miroku knew how Kagome's game would end, or what her reaction would be, but he should know that he would protect her. And not to follow a man into the woods with his woman.

Miroku interpreted the look and shrugged, "It's nearly morning, and that feeling…" here he looked to Hitomi, who was being held by Sango as they came up beside him.

"What happened? Are you Ok?" Sango asked bewildered.

"She left." InuYasha stated.

Sango's look turned irritated, "What did you do?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" InuYasha yelled back and stumbled back on one foot.

"She turned you human." Sango said tightly.

"Keh, I didn't do anything- wrong." InuYasha turned back towards the now rising sun, stumbling a bit when he did. She had quite a lead on him, and he had no way of knowing which way she went once she left.

Miroku raised an eyebrow at him, "Did Kagome?" he asked hesitantly.

InuYasha tried to snarl at the implication, "Nothing was wrong she… I… Damn it!"

"Can't you just listen for once!" Hitomi cried out suddenly "That voice isn't lying and you know it!"

"Bull shit, she has to recognize me because she's a hanyou now!" InuYasha yelled back. Hitomi remained quiet and InuYasha yelled at her again, "She can't be-…" he cut himself off, put his fists to his forehead and fell back to sit on the ground, eyes closed tightly.

"What is this about?" Miroku asked.

Hitomi looked around anxiously, then sighed, "Ok, I'll explain." Then she blurted, "But InuYasha she _was_ a human and-"

"Fine," InuYasha stood quickly and started to stagger off again, "you talk, I'm going for Kagome."

"You're going the wrong way." Hitomi called out petulantly, "I see her leaving that way." She pointed more to the north."

"Hitomi," Sango looked down at the kit, "how do you see Kagome."

"It's a memory." She said, "She was very upset."

InuYasha seemed to ignore the statements but changed direction. The others followed him at a bit of a distance.

"What did InuYasha do to upset her that much?" Sango asked quietly.

Hitomi shrugged, "She's confused."

"Perhaps if you continued your earlier explanation?" Miroku urged gently.

"Look," Hitomi held her head, "All that's really important is that Kagome's confused because she was rejected, and cast aside by InuYasha, at the same time she was pursued by him. The problem now is that as a Hanyou there is _no_ excuse for InuYasha's past behavior, with the knowledge of what they are is closer to the surface. She has to reconcile the way he's behaved and the mess of what she knows, believes and feels about … everything. She's on edge."

"What _are_ they?" Miroku prodded.

She shook her head, "It really doesn't matter to you. There's nothing you could do for them with the knowledge that you can't do without it."

* * *

Kagome yawned and stretched before she realized she wasn't alone. There was a strong arm draped across her waist as she lay on her side. She scented the air cautiously. Suddenly she remembered, Kouga. She ran into Kouga last night, alone, in the forest.

She opened her eyes slowly; they were in the small clear area that had been created by the death of an enormous tree. The remains of its root ball sheltered them slightly, thick moss covered the area making a soft fresh bed and the smell of good, clean, rotting wood in the cool morning had a lulling effect on her. Their feet were to the east and she could see rays of the barely risen sun stabbing through the younger growth and grasses on a sharp ridge there.

Kougas' arm shifted to support his weight as he leaned over her. She looked up into his warm blue eyes, they had a depth that hadn't been there last night, but Kagome was too sleepy still to bother wondering at it.

"Good morning." he smiled down at her.

Kagome smiled back before starting awake, "Morning!" she sat up and looked around again in alarm, "The suns coming up! I can't believe I slept straight through to morning."

Kouga leaned back on one elbow and gave her a lopsided grin, "You _were_ pretty tired out."

Kagome looked back at him, wide eyed, "I guess I was." She frowned a little, turned to him completely and took his free hand in hers, "I want to thank you Kouga, for last night. I _really _needed that. But-"

"You don't have to go back Kagome." Kouga interrupted, sitting up and taking her hands in his, "You can come back with me now, there can't be any reason you have to stay now."

Kagome looked at his hands with sad eyes "I… can't. Things are more complicated than that. My home is… far away, my friends… and InuYasha…."

Kouga interrupted her with his disapproving frown.

"I know, but, it's my fault really." Kagome answered, "A lot of it's my fault really, and I owe it to him to at least leave things better than that."

"Kagome" Kouga breathed in response.

She looked deep into his intense blue eyes and her heart tugged at her, "Kouga…" she pleaded quietly, she lifted her hand to his cheek.

When he started to lean toward her she didn't back away.

"Kagome?" Mary Jane's voice broke the spell, "What are you doing here?"

Kagome blinked at the Albino girl shadowed by the sun at her back, then back to her position with Kouga. She jerked back her hands and clutched them in her lap, "It's not what you think!" she said desperately, blushing and looking at the ground between them.

"Allright." Mary Jane nodded slowly, "But, what happened to you?"

Kagome sighed, "It's a long story."

* * *

AN; I shortened this chapter significantly. I didn't like that speech in there, it didn't seem natural. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update, I want to thank the two people who did review. The best way to get me writing in _any_ of my stories is to review the story I've updated. For some reason I get down when I update one story and only get reviews for one that's idling. Oops is not dead, I just haven't been able to direct energy in the direction it has to go in now, but reviews fuel writing for all my works. Anyhoo Please review. 


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